Valve gifts Notch a Team Fortress 2 hat of his pixelated head

If there's a game that Minecraft's Markus “Notch” Persson likes more than his own, it's Team Fortress 2. He often talks on Twitter about his love for the game, and, apparently, Valve has been listening. In a beautiful showing of respect, the developers have gifted Notch a one-of-a-kind hat for Team Fortress 2, and put it atop a blocky recreation of his head. Eerie? Definitely. Wonderful? Absolutely.

First, they gave him the rare Primeval Warrior , and now, they've awarded him the Top Notch. The Top Notch is a hat that covers the entire head and can be worn by any class. The Level 50 hat is completely, totally, 100% exclusive to Notch, and cannot be worn or traded to anyone else. "Hooooly cow. Thank you, Valve," Notch said on his blog. "I am never quitting TF2 again, and you should all go buy it right away. How much is it, you ask? It’s FREE! YES!"

Notch has mentioned that the hat gets him a lot of additional attention when he plays from medics, making it an item that should be one every TF2 fan's Christmas list. But it also gets him more spies, apparently. A lot more spies.

Now please excuse us as we think of cool things we can do to get custom Team Fortress 2 hats. Feel free to brainstorm below - we really want a unique hat for ourselves.

Hollander Cooper

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade.