Valve has installed a permanent tribute to the late Rick May just off the beaten path in one of Team Fortress 2's classic maps. Rick May, who also voiced classic characters like Peppy Hare in Star Fox 64 and Dr. M in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, passed away from complications with the COVID-19 virus in April. Fans old and new mourned the loss, creating a resurgence of fan creations surrounding Team Fortress 2 as the gaming community revisited the game and honored the fallen actor. Rick May's performance was often highlighted in Team Fortress videos, including a standout comedic turn in "Expiration Date", a 2014 pilot for an unmade Adult Swim show based on the game.
A month after May's death, Valve released an update to Team Fortress 2 memorializing the man, including a new main menu theme and statues of his Soldier character scattered throughout the game. These statues, which were placed in spawn rooms on most official maps, read out a subset of voice lines from the character when approached. This update lasted a month before being removed, and the game slipped back into its sleepy second decade of existence. Thankfully, the statue will not go away permanently, now replaced with a lasting and meaningful display.
Depicting the set of heads from Team Fortress 2's "Meet the Soldier" trailer as well as the bronze statue first placed throughout the game after Rick May's passing, his epitaph was permanently introduced to Team Fortress 2 in Valve's August 21 patch notes. It will remain as a fixed memorial to the voice actor that depicted the game's Soldier class. Players can find the tribute while playing on the Control Points rendition of Granary. The statue is just outside of Red's spawn to the right, although it's out of bounds and just behind the fence. For those who want a better look, the memorial can best be viewed on a private server where players can clip through the fence using the in-game cheat menu.
Team Fortress 2 first released in October 2007 and still receives regular updates, although they are more keeping the game maintained than adding in significant new content. Still, the dedicated TF2 fanbase has continued to pump out new maps for custom servers, and Valve still releases new cosmetics a few times a year. The game has had a profound effect on future titles, including serving as the clear inspiration for the gameplay of Blizzard's Overwatch and other hero shooters.
The strong characters portrayed by actors like Rick May in Team Fortress 2 morphed the standard silent space marines of past shooters into full-on animated characters. In addition, the game's age let May portray Soldier as the bloodthirsty psychopath the world grew to love. The character was an insane gun for hire who lied about his military service, all while wrapping himself in the American flag to excuse his violent tendencies. Just like everything else in the TF2 universe, it's played for laughs, but it's a mixture of kid-friendly visual design and mature themes that would almost certainly not exist as is in today's market. Rick May is gone, but his unique contributions to the world of gaming will live on forever.
Source: Valve