History Characters / TeamFortress2TheSpy

** The Spy-cicle can be used to intentionally leave ice statues to sow paranoia, essentially being psychological warfare.

-->''"The Spy has already breached our defenses. You've seen what he's done to our colleagues! And worst of all... he could be any one of us!"''
-->'''-The BLU Spy on a RED Spy infiltrating their base, ''Meet the Spy'''''

* Forshadowing: There were several hints that he is actually [[spoiler:Scout's Dad]] prior to the big reveal.

The Spy, like other Support characters, is ill-suited for direct combat. With 125HP, 107% base speed, and his only proper firearm being a large-caliber revolver, he is one of the most vulnerable classes in an open confrontation. Instead, the Spy relies on espionage and trickery to accomplish his goals; his wristwatch can render him invisible, and his cigarette case allows him to disguise as any class. His defining feature, though, is his ability to BackStab people with his Knife, resulting in an instant kill in most circumstances. With this set of tools, the Spy has no trouble navigating through enemy defenses and assassinating lone key targets, such as a Medic with his Ubercharge at the ready. The possibility of a Spy disrupting a strategy shapes much of the meta-game. Attentive enemies will check every corner and teammate to potentially uncover a disguised Spy, making his job much harder. No class does this better than the Pyro, who naturally counters the Spy's watches and disguises with his flamethrower, lighting him aflame and revealing him as a foe.\\

The Spy is an enigmatic Frenchman constantly clad in a balaclava mask and an expensive two-piece suit, with a past shrouded in mystery and speculation. He has a [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent weird, snooty accent]] and [[TuxedoAndMartini acts like a James Bond ripoff]], swooning women, smoking cigarettes, and having more class and manners than his teammates. Of course, he's [[NotSoAboveItAll not above rolling with the others' wacky antics for the hell of it]], especially when it comes to throwing around childish insults. From what little one can gather about his personal life, he has an affair with the Scout's mom, and he may very well be his biological father. [[http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Spy This is the Spy's official [=TF2=] Wiki page.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4N5OhcY9s Everyone, Meet the Spy!]]\\

The Spy, like other Support characters, is ill-suited for direct combat. With 125HP, 107% base speed, and his only proper firearm being a large-caliber revolver, he should not be seeking open confrontation. The Spy is a stealth-based class who uses espionage and trickery to infiltrate the enemy lines; his wristwatch can render him invisible, and his cigarette case allows him to disguise as any class. His defining feature, though, is his ability to BackStab people with his Knife, resulting in an instant kill in most circumstances. With this set of tools, the Spy has no trouble navigating through enemy defenses and assassinating lone key targets, such as a Medic with his Ubercharge at the ready. The possibility of a Spy disrupting a strategy shapes much of the meta-game. Attentive enemies will check every corner and teammate to potentially uncover a disguised Spy, making his job much harder. No class does this better than the Pyro, who naturally counters the Spy's watches and disguises with his flamethrower, lighting him aflame and revealing him as a foe.\\

The Spy, like other Support characters, is ill-suited for direct combat. With 125HP, 107% base speed, and his only proper firearm being a large-caliber revolver, he should not be seeking open confrontation. The Spy is a stealth-based class who uses espionage and trickery to infiltrate the enemy lines; his wristwatch can render him invisible, and his cigarette case allows him to disguise as any class. His defining feature though is his ability to BackStab people with his Knife, resulting in an instant kill in most circumstances. With this set of tools, the Spy has no trouble navigating through enemy defenses and assassinating lone key targets, such as a Medic with his Ubercharge at the ready. The possibility of a Spy disrupting a strategy shapes much of the meta-game. Attentive enemies will check every corner and teammate to potentially uncover a disguised Spy, making his job much harder. No class does this better than the Pyro, who naturally counters the Spy's watches and disguises with his flamethrower, lighting him aflame and revealing him as a foe.\\

* AscendedGlitch: The Spy class itself was inspired by a bug in the original Team Fortress, where players would sometimes see other players with the wrong team's color.

The Spy is an enigmatic Frenchman constantly clad in a balaclava mask and an expensive two-piece suit, with a past shrouded in mystery and speculation. He does have a [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent weird, snooty accent]] and [[TuxedoAndMartini acts like a James Bond ripoff]], swooning women, smoking cigarettes, and having more class and manners than his teammates. Of course, he's NotSoAboveItAll and can easily dismiss everyone else as halfwits, while he himself can sometimes roll with others' wacky antics for the hell of it. He has an affair with Scout's mom, and very well may be his biological father. [[http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Spy This is the Spy's official [=TF2=] Wiki page.]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR4N5OhcY9s Everyone, Meet the Spy!]]\\

The Spy, like other Support characters, is ill-suited for direct combat. With 125HP, 107% base speed, and his only proper firearm being a large-caliber revolver, one shouldn't seek open confrontation when playing as him. The Spy is a stealth-based class who uses espionage and trickery to infiltrate the enemy lines, as his wristwatch can render him invisible, and his cigarette case allows him to disguise as any class. His defining feature though is his ability to BackStab people with his Knife, resulting in an instant kill in most circumstances. With that set of tools, the Spy can lurk in the enemy's side of the map, navigating through their defense and assassinate lone enemies or key targets like that one distracted Medic with his Ubercharge ready. Because of that, the Spy's possible presence shapes a lot of the meta-game, and people will be wary of Spies, checking corner and whether or not if anyone is a disguised Spy. His natural enemy is the Pyro, whose flame thrower can be easily spammed everywhere to detect any Spy.\\

The Spy shared an update with the Sniper, [[http://www.teamfortress.com/sniper_vs_spy/ and they'd been trying to constantly kill each other over it]].

-->''"The Spy have already breached our defenses. You've seen what he's done to our colleagues! And worse of all... he could be any one of us!"''

-->''"Gentlemen."''

'''''*[[BackStab CRITICAL HIT!]]*'''''

** The Spy as a whole fits into this, especially when under the scrutiny of competitive play. He's undeniably one of the most thrilling characters to play, with a menagerie of unique tools including [[StealthExpert stealth]], [[AntiStructure sappers]], [[MasterOfDisguise disguises]], and most famous of all, OneHitKill backstabs, all contributing to a conceptually powerful role as a deceptive saboteur. This ends up being offset, however, by both his [[DifficultButAwesome mechanical difficulty]], as well as the fact that this ends up accomplishing things [[OvershadowedByAwesome which other classes can do more consistently]] -- backstabs secure picks on important targets, but so can a Sniper with good aim, and [[LongRangeFighter he doesn't need to reach breathing distance to do so]]. Sappers can put enemy buildings out of commission, but Demomen and Soldiers each come with [[DemolitionsExpert better options for blowing them up entirely]], again from a long range. Spies are also [[SkillGateCharacter hugely gapped by experience and communication]], with veterans able to spot disguised spies just by recognizing odd behaviors, and any Spy whose position has been pinpointed by an enemy team with good coordination is almost always as good as dead. Spies are very rare in competitive games as a result, and in the rare cases you do see one, it's usually [[NotTheIntendedUse to capitalize on other, much more abstract traits]] (such as using his invisibility for reconnaissance and gathering intel on the enemy), and it's widely accepted that he will die immediately after getting ''one'' kill, with the value coming from making sure that the kill is on a very important target.

* SkillGateCharacter: Pyro isn't his absolute counter, it's ''experience''. More experienced players are far harder to fool, more prone to Spy-checking, and more likely to see the flaws in his disguise (such as lack of Uber as Medic, oddly-lethargic Scouts, lack of shooting, attempts to get behind allies, and picking up crates and health he doesn't need). In Highlander, getting one good pick as Spy and dying immediately afterwards is considered to be doing a pretty decent job.

** When Spy thinks [[spoiler:Scout]] is about to die of blood loss in "The Naked and the Dead," he, with Sniper's urging, confesses to him that [[spoiler:[[MissingDad he is his long-absent father]], and that he loves him]]. However, he does it while [[spoiler:disguised as Tom Jones, letting Scout die happy, thinking his father is someone he looked up to]]. It's implied that, despite feeling guilty for not revealing their [[spoiler:blood relation]], he knows [[spoiler:Scout]] would be devastated by the truth due to his enmity towards him in the present. And even when Spy is vocally frustrated about [[spoiler:Scout]] reviving mere moments later, completely deflating the intense emotions of that moment, he wears an expression that's fighting back TearsOfJoy.

** It's ''extremely'' one-sided, but when Spy thinks [[spoiler:Scout]] is about to die of blood loss in "The Naked and the Dead," he, with Sniper's urging, confesses to him that [[spoiler:[[MissingDad he is his long-absent father]], and that he loves him]]. However, he does it while [[spoiler:disguised as Tom Jones, letting Scout die happy, thinking his father is someone he looked up to]]. It's implied that, despite feeling guilty for not revealing their [[spoiler:blood relation]], he knows [[spoiler:Scout]] would be devastated by the truth due to his enmity towards him in the present. And even when Spy is vocally frustrated about [[spoiler:Scout]] reviving mere moments later, completely deflating the intense emotions of that moment, his expression implies he's holding back TearsOfJoy.

* MicroDieting: For some bizarre reason, his false teeth contain everything he needs to have a tiny version of a fancy meal -- a tiny tablecloth, bottle and glass of wine, candelabra, fork, knife, and miniature farm-raised Cornish game hen.

* MicroDieting: His false teeth contain everything he needs to have a tiny version of a fancy meal -- a tiny tablecloth, bottle and glass of wine, candelabra, fork, knife, and miniature farm-raised Cornish game hen.

* CriticalHitClass: Spy's Back Stab is considered a critical hit by the game, and it's powerful enough to completely bypass any opponents health advantage save for an Uber.

** In-game, invisible Spies can take peaceful strolls behind enemy lines with little to worry about until their cloak runs out and can often backstab many of the more fearsome enemies in the game very easily.