In the latest update of Team Fortress 2, Valve added statues of Soldier around various maps that play one of Soldier’s voice lines randomly whenever a player goes to it. Valve added statues and more to the game to tribute Soldier’s voice actor, Rick May who died last month at age 79.
According to Rekindle School, where Rick taught voiceover acting, Rick suffered a stroke in February 2020 and was moved to a nursing home in Seattle for rehabilitation. On April 8, 2020, it was reported that Rick had died due to complications related to COVID-19 at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.
The Statues also have an inscription at the base which show his name with the year of both his birth and death, along with one of the most popular voice line of Soldier “That was a hell of a campaign son!.” In addition to statues, Valve also included a new main menu theme of saluting Soldier character model, accompanied by a rendition of Taps, a song used by the military to honor and mourn fallen soldiers.
Currently, the tribute will last the entirety of May but many players over Reddit believe that Valve will be turning this into an annual tribute in some capacity later on to honor Rick May.
