Pelican Peak

Pelican Peak
Basic Information
Map type	Capture the Flag
File name	ctf_pelican_peak
Release date	December 5, 2022 (2.0.4)
Developer(s)	abp Stuffy360 void chin phi
Link(s)	Steam Workshop TF2Maps
Map info
Environment	Alpine Forest
Setting	Daylight, dusk

Pelican Peak is an official Capture the Flag map with a helical design and a spacious intelligence area. It is designed as a logging camp inside a mountainous forest, featuring a large outdoors middle area with multiple flank routes leading in and out of it.

Pelican Peak was added to Team Fortress 2 on July 12, 2023, during the Summer 2023 Update. It was previously added to Team Fortress 2 Classic on December 5, 2022, in patch 2.0.4. This is the first instance of Valve adding a map to TF2 that was originally added to TF2 Classic.

Pelican Peak was created by TF2 Classic developers abp and Stuffy360, alongside contributors void, chin, and phi, and three other people who aren't listed on the TF2 Classic website. It was uploaded to the Steam Workshop on November 9, 2022.

Locations

Overview

Spawn

There are two exits leading out of each team's spawn room: an elevated left exit, and a lowered right exit. The left exit leads to another split path: on the left are the battlements and on the right is a path to that team's intelligence, or the middle area. On the right is that team's intelligence, on the way to the middle, with a side path dropping into their sewer.

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  RED spawn

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  Battlement spawn

Intelligence

The intelligence is on an elevated perch in a damaged shack in a wide open area, providing little cover around it. Behind it is an enclosed room with some health and ammo, and a tiny window for a Sniper to shoot from. There are numerous routes for the enemy to grab the intelligence and escape from, with two sewer paths and two paths to middle. The wide open space also makes it difficult to defend a sentry encampment, and easy to explosive jump in and out.

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  Sewer exit

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  Main route

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  Intelligence

Sewer

The sewer area features cramped hallways into a spacious underground area, which provides a lengthy back route into allied intelligence. It is inconvenient to get to middle through here, so it is usually taken by enemies trying to sneak in. Allies can go through the vent shortcut to get down here quickly, which is a one-way route without an explosive jump. There is a large pool of water at the end of the vents.

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  Sewer lobby

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  Sewer vents

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  Sewer entrance

Battlements

The battlements are a sheltered, elevated area overlooking middle, but with no vision of the intelligence or behind itself. There are multiple spots for a Sniper to take aim, with clear vision of the opposing battlements. It also provides a convenient launching-off point for an explosive jump, with the river below mitigating fall damage. Inside the battlements are a downstairs area leading to a one-way door behind the enemy side shack.

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  Battlement

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  Battlement stairs

Side route

The battlements spawn also leads to a lowered side route to middle and to the intelligence. Is is a cramped indoor area with little strategic value beyond a health and ammo pack.

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  Side route

Main route

The direct path to middle is a wide road with some health and ammo scattered through it. There is an alcove just before middle, next to the side route, which provides some cover.

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  Main route

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  Main route alcove

Side shack

Next to the sewer area is a side shack next to the enemy one-way battlements exit. It contains a health and ammo pack, a means of ambushing enemies coming through the door, and yet another route to get to middle.

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  Side shack

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  One way

Middle

A spacious, yet linear area, featuring a lowered ravine with shallow water that is deep in the middle, flanked by two rocky outcrops that act as walls. There are few defensible positions in this area, and Sniper sightlines are abundant. It is possible to explosive jump onto the enemy battlements. Outside of the side shacks, this area is starved of health and ammo. There is a train track up above, with its pillars impeding the ravine. A steam train runs across it every so often.

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  Middle center

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  Middle side

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  Middle overview

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  Train

Easter eggs

Scattered around the map are a few wooden critters and animal-shaped entities. Behind an inaccessible door in RED spawn is an enigmatic model of a frog with an antenna for a tail. Behind the water grate just outside RED spawn, in a space far too dark to see, is a wooden representation of a man in an inflatable blue fetish costume wearing sunglasses, based off a minor Internet meme named "Blimp Butt". On the opposite side of the water grate, far away from the play area, is a wooden deer placed on a secluded landmass with a tent and boxes - again too dark to see.

Inside the tower near RED intelligence, in the barely-visible upstairs room, is a wooden anthropomorphic hawk wearing a sweater and shirt, but not pants, and is ironically bespectacled. Finally, the map's namesake pelican (which was not added to the map until the Fight or Flight update, 144 days after release) is located on a mountain home far behind BLU side shack, perched on a cozy balcony. The pelican is protected behind an invisible wall that bullets cannot penetrate, which is irrelevant, since it is also wooden.

There is a sign inside the BLU spawn shower that says "swift water", a reference to the Team Fortress 2 map named "Swiftwater". Also inside BLU spawn is a texture referencing Jinn, which is a map made in part by abp.

In the Team Fortress 2 version of Pelican Peak, the "Blimp Butt" figure has been replaced with an unremarkable wooden cow, the same as those on 2Fort. The anthropomorphic hawk figure has been removed entirely, and in his wake, replaced with nothing. The reasons for their removal shall never be ascertained.

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  Frog (brightness enhanced)

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  Blimp Butt (brightness enhanced)

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  Deer from afar (brightness enhanced)

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  Deer close (brightness enhanced)

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  Avian

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  Pelican afar

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  Pelican close

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  BLU shower

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  BLU noticeboard

Update history

2.0.4

• Added ctf_pelican_peak:
  • Created by Chin, Phi, and Another Bad Pun
  • Traditional CTF map comparable to Landfall, with wide open playspaces, and an exposed flag that's easier to steal but harder to capture

2.1.0

• Removed _tf2c suffix from filename
• Removed building exploit in vents
• Removed out of bounds exploit by red spawn
• Added Pelican

Trivia

• A winter-themed version of Pelican Peak, "Penguin Peak", also exists.