Professor Speks

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Let this be lesson for you.
The Heavy after helping a newcomer

The Professor Speks is a cosmetic item for all classes. It is a pair of navy blue, thick-rimmed glasses held together with a rubber band and a paper clip, identical to the glasses seen on the Professor's Peculiarity.

When a player with a free account upgrades to a premium account by purchasing an item in the Mann Co. Store, they are presented with an option to select, from their Steam friends list or from players on the current server, the name of the person who referred them to (or helped them the most with) Team Fortress 2. Any existing premium account player who is selected in this fashion receives the Professor Speks. Players with free accounts who upgrade using an Upgrade to Premium Gift will give the player who gifted them the Professor Speks and increase the gifter's "new users helped" count. Contrary to what is implied on the free-to-play FAQ page, coaching new players is in no way a prerequisite for obtaining the Speks. As long as the recipient is on the free account user's Steam friends list or in the same server, they are eligible to receive the item.

The in-game backpack description of the Speks includes a unique line which reads: "New Users Helped: X", where "X" indicates the number of new users the player has helped. If a player receives multiple votes from free account users, they do not receive a duplicate item. Rather, the description information on their existing Professor Speks updates to reflect the new count.

Update history

June 23, 2011 Patch (Über Update)

  • The Professor Speks was added to the game.

October 13, 2011 Patch #1 (Manniversary Update & Sale)

  • [Undocumented] The Professor Speks now fall off the ragdoll at death.

October 2, 2013 Patch

  • Updated the Professor Speks so they don't float in the air during Sniper taunts.

November 12, 2013 Patch

  • [Undocumented] Added Strange quality.

January 15, 2015 Patch #1

  • Fixed the Professor Speks moving around on the Soldier's face.

Bugs

  • In DirectX 8, the Professor Speks are golden in the loadout menu.

Gallery