BLU = Soviet Union, RED = USA

[English Mobster]

This is going to sound crazy, but:

Nine mercenaries have come together for a job. It's the middle-ish part of a century a lot like the one we just had. A simpler time. There are three TV stations, one phone company, and two holding corporations that secretly control every government on the planet. Each corporation administers its half of the world with a multi-disciplined army of paper pushers. For any problem lacking an obvious bureaucratic solution, mercenaries like these are contracted to address the situation through a massive application of force.Now let's take a look at the parallels here:


The USA pretty much controlled (or has a HEAVY influence on) every capitalist government (I'm generalizing here, so nobody get butthurt). Meanwhile, the USSR controlled every Communist government. The world was essentially divided in two.
The game is set during the Cold War, offering up the right time period.
Remember, these are intelligence agencies. Offering up the front of a "building company" would take attention away from the real action.

But why is BLU the Soviets and RED the USA? Well:


The levels seem to take place in America, based on the advertisements and appearances. BLU is attacking RED. It would make sense if the Soviets were attacking American bases in America.
BLU architecture tends to be cold, with a great deal of concrete and faded colors. While it's true that most buildings built in the 1960s had this appearance, RED has a noticeably different style, with warm colors and more of a reliance on wood. The cold, industrial feel is more evocative of the Soviet Union.
BLU is an acronym for "Builders League United", which sounds like some sort of labor union. In contrast, Reliable Excavation/Demolition sounds more like a for-profit business, implying the struggle of socialism vs. capitalism.
BLU may be a parody of GRU, the Soviet foreign military intelligence service.
There is a poster I just found while scanning the game's posters (don't worry, it was for something COMPLETELY different, I'm not THAT obsessed): A blue sign which reads: "Industry is victory". Communism depends on industry to survive.

And what about the colors?


While red is the color of socialism, this would be far too obvious for an intelligence agency. Instead, the Reds will disguise themselves as blue to avoid attracting unwanted attention.


Maybe I'm insane. Maybe. But I've yet to meet one who can outsmart bullet has proved me wrong.

[Bodzilla]

you need to step back, breathe and.... i dunno.... play the game.

[p0lar_bear]

While I like to take the game at face value (a team deathmatch/objective game), I can't deny that those points are more than just conspiracy babble.

Not saying that Valve is horrible for doing this or anything, it's definitely a "well played, sir" moment. :golfclap:

[BobtheGreatII]

Lol, wow. Gotta say, that's a different way of looking at it.:golfclap:

[Rentafence]

And notice that in every meet the team episode, BLU always loses. :golfclap:

[sdavis117]

And I am just going to post this message followed by the golf clap smiley just to be part of the cool crowd. :golfclap:

I wouldn't pull it past Valve to put in secret symbolism.

[Botolf]

The exact nations involved are impossible to determine because it appears that they both hire multinational mercenaries to fight each other in proxy wars. What we may guess, however, is some of their nature of both super companies.

Blue embodies the modern, simplified and functional buildings. Red embodies the wild and chaotic spirit of the Old West, where every building has character and grit. Blue appears to be the construction and urban business giant. Red appears to be the agricultural and industrial giant, a more rural based force. Rural and urban interests have always conflicted, so this seems to be a natural extension of that rivalry. This isn't a Cold War analogy, this is an escalated conflict that dates back thousands of years.

[Mass]

Umm, you're silly.

Almost all of the game's style cues are from 1960's spy movies, primarily early Bond films.

B.L.U. and R.E.D. are both parodies of the sinister and resourceful S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPECTRE)organization, which fronts as a corporation but actually pursues global domination and massive extortion schemes using it's considerable existing resources such as the ability to launch spacecraft.

Seriously, that's the fictional precedent on which the teams are based. Entirely.

[n00b1n8R]

Congratulations guys, you've taken the most pointless thread I've ever seen on this site seriously.

Also, what mass said.

[Botolf]

The urban/rural opposites of both sides are undeniable, not just visually but also in the small snippets in the fiction that isn't represented in-game. There are also many smaller corporations with ads in the game, and they're associated with Red or Blu according to what they do (With Red getting more rural businesses under it, and Blu having more urban-styled businesses under it). Both sides obviously overlap with missiles and the like, but the fact remains that the two have very different business. Spi-fi is obviously a big influence, but this is too.