Capricious Valve fixes a 17-year-old Team Fortress 2 bug that caused Scout’s pants to be the wrong color, and fixes it almost immediately

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Update from 10/26/25: It’s over. The day after this patch was released and a few hours after this article was published, Valve’s cleaner went to work. New patch Team Fortress 2 “reverted the BLU Scout pants fix as it conflicts with too many existing cosmetics.”

The original story is as follows: Valve Software’s dream team has done it again, adding another footnote to the definition of Valve Time by releasing a new update for Team Fortress 2 that fixes a 17-year-old bug.

Update Notes contain a harmless line “Fixed an issue that caused Blue Scouts to wear the wrong team color pants.” The news that one of Team Fortress 2’s characters has apparently been running around in the wrong pants for so long has, of course, caused consternation, shock and awe among one of the most excitable fan groups. This also has funny implications regarding Scout’s ability to dress.

The change can be seen in the comparison image below:

“Honestly, the fact that most trouser cosmetics will now forever remain incompatible is funny.” says Patrick Batemanalthough I’m pretty sure it’s not him.

Many other reactions sound like memes: “TF2 is finally playable!” and “game saved!” along with expressions to the contrary and general underlying worry that everyone has been playing with the wrong color pants for so long without even noticing. Except for one thing: YouTuber Shounic posted a video last year called “Scout Pants Are the Wrong Color,” in which he shows that the BLU Team Pants layer was disabled in the Scout textures Photoshop file.

So to give credit where it’s due, Scout’s pants were the wrong color. Shunik has uploaded another short video in response to the change, showing some of the cosmetic issues caused by changing this texture, although, funnily enough, he also notes that the Zombie Scout model has been faithfully updated.

Needless to say, this is the topic of all the top posts on TF2 subredditwith MrCheggersPartyQuiz sadly noticing that “almost 20 years later, this game is still fixing things I never thought were broken.”

The line of the day, however, goes to Mx. Bean: “The beetle is so old that it could be enlisted in the army with the consent of its parents.”

Finally, the TF2 community has outdone itself: Scout, who wore the wrong trousers for 17 years, is now the subject of criminal prosecution. new TF2 fanfiction by WelfareGorilla. Excerpt: “These pants are for red team scouts, you should be wearing smart blue pants!”