Valve's 16 October Team Fortress 2 update changes Holyhell and six Zombie Infection maps. The patch installs automatically when the game is restarted.

Holyhell's round timer is reduced to five minutes, with shorter respawn waves. The team that loses the middle point gains respawning spells on its side, while gargoyles now spawn near middle. The map also receives visual fixes and optimisation work.

Zombie Pyro's melee damage rises from 45 to 65. Sticky Spew applies a 20% movement slow, with another 20% while standing in its enlarged puddles. Pyro's death explosion now deals 50 damage and causes afterburn.

Zombie Sniper's Spit cooldown falls from nine seconds to six. Other fixes address invisible player models in DirectX 8, Zombie Engineer beacon placement, excessive Zombie Spy damage and slow movement after using abilities.

Source: Valve patch notes.

ESIC announced on 16 October that Palkovics "2xplayN" Tamas is banned for life from covered ESIC and member competitions in any capacity, replacing the three-year suspension imposed in the NOMERCY match-manipulation case.

The revised sanction follows public posts showing apparent cash alongside comments about the findings, betting payouts and a return to competition. ESIC found that his conduct during suspension constituted further integrity breaches. The lifetime ban removes his previously scheduled April 2029 return, with no cooperation-based reduction applied to the new sanction.

ESIC explicitly stated that the photographs alone do not establish that the money shown came from match-fixing. The commission also said it would refer the sanctioned conduct to Valve, government agencies and law enforcement.

Source: ESIC.

Bloodrun's 16 October build adds Slash as a playable gladiator, bringing Crouch Slide and Plasma Trail from her Quake Champions counterpart.

Holding crouch on landing starts a slide that preserves movement speed. Her active ability lays a damaging plasma trail, with three seconds to place it and another three seconds to trigger its explosion. Bots can also use both abilities.

The update refreshes four arenas and adds a HUD arc near the crosshair to show ability information, including Slash's slide charge and Angel's countdown to invisibility. A new Setup > Gladiators section provides ability effect settings.

Existing players can install the build through the Bloodrun launcher.

Sources: Bloodrun changelog, Plus Forward.

Valve has introduced achievement sets in the Steam client beta, allowing developers to group achievements for a game's base campaign, DLC, seasons or other content separately.

Each set tracks its own completion progress. In games that adopt the feature, additional DLC or seasonal achievements can sit outside the base-game set, so players can retain that set's 100% completion without earning every later addition.

The redesigned achievements page brings progress information together and allows direct comparisons with up to three friends at once. Support depends on developers organising their games' achievements into sets; the change does not automatically separate every game's existing list.

The feature is currently available through the Steam client beta.

Sources: Valve announcements, PC Gamer.

Strongsage won Estoty Duel Tournament #222 in Quake Champions on 16 October, beating k1llsen 3-1 in the grand final. It is his 14th title in the series and his first since #219.

Strongsage beat baSe 2-0 in the upper semifinals, then defeated k1llsen 2-0 in the winners final. k1llsen returned to the final with a 2-0 win over baSe, who finished third, but lost the rematch against Strongsage.

Strongsage remains fourth on the series' all-time winners list, behind baSe with 70 titles, RAISY with 47 and Keltz with 33.

Source: Plus Forward.

The US Doom and Quake Community will host a one-day QuakeWorld 2v2 tournament on Saturday, 24 October.

The format is double elimination, with best-of-one matches and a best-of-three grand final to keep the cup within one evening. Maps are assigned by round. The pool is Ultrav, ZTNDM3, Aerowalk, Bravado and DM2.

Signups are through the community's Discord; see the organiser's announcement for the signup link.

Source: US Doom and Quake Community announcement.

Church of Quake will run an online Quake Champions 4v4 Sacrifice Tournament Edition cup on Saturday, 24 October. Players sign up individually, then captains select teams through a snake draft. The advertised prize pool is $150.

The first 32 signups are guaranteed places, making eight teams. Further signups go on reserve unless the field reaches 64, allowing sixteen teams.

The bracket is double elimination. Upper-bracket matches and the lower final are best of three, other lower-bracket matches best of one, and the grand final best of five.

Players must join the Church of Quake Discord. Coverage is planned on the community's Twitch channel, and other casters are welcome to contact the organisers.

Links: Sign up, Twitch.

Source: Church of Quake, including Discord and current signup links.

k1llsen won EGB QC Cup #11 on 11 October, beating dramiS 3-2 in the grand final. Sixteen players took part in the online Quake Champions tournament. The $75 pool paid $60 to k1llsen and $15 to dramiS.

k1llsen did not lose a series. He beat creeep_06487 2-0, NRAV 2-0 and St0n3 2-1 before taking the winners final against dramiS 2-0. dramiS returned through the lower final with a 2-1 win over cYpheR, then lost the rematch. cYpheR finished third and Yup fourth.

It is k1llsen's fifth title in the EGB Quake Champions duel series. Keltz and Strongsage have three each.

Source: Plus Forward results, report.

Frontier One Map Cup #1 will take place in Quake Live on 24 October. The tournament uses one new map throughout, with its name and practice servers due to be released on 19 October so everyone has the same preparation time.

Registration is open on the Frontier website. The prize pool has not yet been announced. Cyber, Input and Steemorol are organising the event, with coverage planned on cyb3rway's Twitch channel.

Links: Registration, Twitch, Frontier Telegram.

Source: 250FPS.

Valve released a Steam client update on 13 October with improved startup performance and new options for Big Picture mode. The update downloads automatically.

Big Art Mode adds a larger artwork presentation to the home screen and can be enabled under Settings > Home. The Recommended tab also gains the Personal Calendar.

Big Picture now supports screensavers under Settings > Customization. The default slideshow can display artwork from recently played games and recent screenshots. A bouncing Steam logo is the other built-in option, and custom screensavers are supported too.

The update also changes startup behaviour so the Steam main window avoids taking focus if another window was activated during startup or login, and fixes the onscreen keyboard failing to work on its first desktop invocation.

Sources: Valve - Steam Client Update, October 13, PC Gamer.

The Thunderpick World Championship 2026 began in Malta on 14 October, with eight CS2 teams competing for a $1 million combined player and club prize pool. The event runs through 18 October.

All four opening series ended 2-0: 9z beat Aurora, Falcons beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, Legacy beat PARIVISION and FURIA beat BETBOOM.

On 15 October, Falcons beat 9z 2-1 to secure a playoff place. Aurora stayed alive by beating NIP 2-0, eliminating the Swedish organisation's team from the event.

The group stage uses two four-team double-elimination groups, with two teams from each advancing. Group matches and playoff semifinals are best of three; the grand final is best of five. The winners receive $500,000, split equally between player prize money and the club share.

Sources: HLTV event guide, opening-day results, Falcons qualify, NIP eliminated, Liquipedia, PR Newswire.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 launches on 23 October as a separate purchase and will not be included with Game Pass at launch. Activision confirmed on 15 October that Game Pass availability is planned for Holiday 2027.

Digital pre-orders include campaign early access from 16 October and DMZ early access from 20 October. Existing Call of Duty titles, including Black Ops 7, Black Ops 6 and Modern Warfare III, remain available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers.

Sources: Activision, GamesRadar.

Epic released a preview of its rebuilt Epic Games Launcher on 14 October for Windows, macOS and, for the first time, Linux. It includes a redesigned library, connections to other PC game libraries and more detailed download management.

Epic describes the client as "vibe coded" and claims a cold start to the store is 46% faster than Steam. That is Epic's comparison, not an independent benchmark here. The client is still a preview with a limited feature set.

Fortnite is not available on Linux yet. Epic is rebuilding its anti-cheat implementation as EAC Linux v2 and working with distribution maintainers before bringing the game over. Fortnite will be the first pilot, with support for other developers to follow after validation.

The requirements include TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and signed kernels and modules. EAC Linux v2 uses existing kernel security features, eBPF and a service active during protected games, rather than installing its own kernel module. Steam Deck does not currently meet the requirements; Epic says it is talking with Valve about future support.

Sources: Epic Games Store, Epic Online Services, PC Gamer.

Richard "Levelord" Gray, the level designer known for Duke Nukem 3D, Quake: Scourge of Armagon and SiN, has died. Apogee Entertainment announced his death on 13 October.

Gray joined the Duke Nukem 3D team after making Doom maps. After Duke shipped in 1996, he co-founded Hipnotic Interactive, later renamed Ritual Entertainment. His subsequent credits included Star Trek: Elite Force II and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Apogee founder Scott Miller recalled hiring Gray after seeing his Doom levels, and paid tribute to his talent, dedication and willingness to help other designers. John Romero was among the developers who also paid tribute.

Sources: Apogee Entertainment, PC Gamer.