The Adrenaline Vault News is reporting that programmer Billy Zelsnack has been contracted by Valve Software to work on TeamFortress 2. Here's a bit of the update which describes that, and also describes TeamFortress2 as being a year away, which, if it is the case, is the first indication that the title is that far off:

Now the Adrenaline Vault has confirmed with Sierra and Valve that Zelsnack has been contracted to assist the Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms development team, and is doing engine enhancements for the next-generation Half-Life technology being used for the title. Since the online-oriented 3D action game is at least a year off, as a Sierra public relations representative mentioned Tuesday when contacted about Zelsnack’s responsibilities on the project, both companies turned down our request for an interview. But having him elbow-deep in the code could mean very good things for the product.