Who will win? Hard to say: Razorback and Jarate vs. Dead Ringer and Ambassador 
Meanwhile let’s have a closer look at the gifts Santa Valve brought us.
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Both classes have received a boost with their new weapons. If you examine the new items it could be said that for the spy the role was deepened while it was broadened for the sniper.
What do I mean with this? Basically the mission of the spy hasn’t changed much. With Dead Ringer and Cloak & Dagger he now has three variations of cloaking he can use to adapt to different situations. Cloak & Daggermight be useful for prolonged reconnaissance missions or for the spy to move and stay into position waiting for the right time (e.g. staying close to the final cap waiting for his team to capture the previous one). TheDead Ringer gives the spy a higher chance of survivability on his regular infiltrate-and-stab missions. The Ambassadorappears to be a good replacement for the Colt, from what I’ve heard.
All these are theoretical considerations. The spy is my least played class and I truly suck at it.
The sniper on the other hand has been given an additional field of operations. Just like Valve promised they have given the sniper a useful purpose closer to the frontline with the Huntsman and Jarate (while the Huntsmen can be used even at longer range the travel time of the arrow makes it inferior to the sniper rifle). But I think once the dust has settled Jarate, in terms of teamwork, might be the most valuable addition to the game. Especially its primary function (with disturbing a spy’s cloak and extinguishing teammates on fire being the secondary functions), the increased level of damage to enemies is pretty much an inverted Kritzkrieg and should be able to be deployed with similar effect.
Again, I’m probably not the most competent person to judge on that, since the sniper is my second least played class (Oh yeah, this update wasn’t exactly Christmas for me).
But besides all tactical considerations: Using the Huntsman is so much fun. Shooting arrows exhibits almost a sensual quality, and that slashing sound when an arrow hits a target is quite poignant
I’m hoping I can persuade some people with a better insight in sniping and spy work to write a commentary about the new weapons and their implications to the game. Fingers crossed
The new maps: I didn’t have the opportunity to play Hoodoo so far, I just did a walkthrough on a local server. Design wise the map’s pretty much influenced by Goldrush, I just hope it’s bit less defense friendly (so far the new maps are not covered by the Steam Stats yet).
Pipeline benefits from its novelty factor, but it’s quite spammy by nature and I have seen better designed maps. So while the concept of cart racing is interesting and promising (plus it demands a different tactical approach) I’m a bit disappointed by this premiere implementation. Design is a bit bland and the alternative routes pretty much look like they were installed on an afterthought. In short: Good concept, mediocre map.
Nucleus and Sawmill have me at a disadvantage: I don’t like Arena. I played both for a few rounds. Sawmill left me unimpressed, since it’s very similar to Lumberyard. The weather effect is nice, but since it doesn’t have any impact on the game and IMHO also fails to create any specific mood I chalk that one up as a test-run for an engine extension.
Nucleus on the other hand is more interesting. It looks nice and fresh, since it has actually very little of the TF2-typical cartoonish style, but consequently reminds me more of what I would expect from a Quake or Unreal DM-map than a HL/TF map. And it plays exactly like a good old-fashioned DM-map, so it holds no lasting thrill for me.
I don’t think I have much to add to the new item drops. Everybody have talked and ranted about it. Quite a few people have shown that no matter how old they can still behave like a 5-year-old who doesn’t get his will. But by now most people should have the precious new items, either by simply playing, by idling or by the reinstated milestones.
So perhaps we can leave this rather shameful episode behind us and move on.
Which leaves the hats. Most of them I find silly (The soldier’s stash is cool, Engy and sniper okay, the rest … 
) . But since they’re met with excitement and glee I guess I’m part of a minority here.
As for the future:
There are three classes left to update: Soldier, Demo and Engineer. Those are probably the three classes which would have the least need of new weapons adding additional capabilities. Both, Soldier and Demo are already versatile all-purpose classes, and the Engineer previously had a mini-update with the introduction of level-3 buildings, and due to the stationary nature of the buildings it’s difficult to give him additional uses. Among the possibilities I could think of would be something like a payload variation where the cart can be damaged and the Engy has to repair it (though Valve has shied away from any game elements which would rely on a specific class). But since Valve has gone increasingly experimental during the last updates I’m sure they will come up with something interesting.
But of course we might not be done after that. This update was the first time that Valve has given two alternative weapons for the same slot. So it’s reasonable to assume that already updated classes may get additional weapons in the future. This might happen without a major class update as it did in the past, and without new achievements, and those new weapons might be distributed by the item drop system.
Until then let’s find out who well these new weapons work and what impact they have on the gameplay. We also have to choose which weapon is overpowered this time (it’s a long standing tradition in the TF community after all)
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