CommunityFortress

This post is a response to "What Competitive TF2 Needs Most" by G-Mang

Although I do agree that competitive play would benefit from greater class variety, I don't agree with the sentiment that "all classes should be viable mains."  In fact, I think that in some cases, trying to make certain classes could be counter-productive.

As someone who isn't very far removed from pub play, I can tell you that your average pubstar does not consider all classes equally viable.  Many pub players will complain about having to play on a team with three spies or three snipers, but won't become upset if they have three soldiers or three medics.  Why?  Because they've identified certain classes as being more viable than others in terms of total usage.

Take a look at the stats:

The numbers speak for themselves.

In general, your average pubstar has found that there are certain classes are more effective than others.  I hail from a fairly large pub community where most of the better-known players are known for turning games around when playing as soldier.  In that regard, these higher-end pub players are very much like competitive players: they've found that certain classes are more effective than others, and they're able to game the system in their favor by shying away from classes like spy and scout (who isn't effective in the most popular pub maps) to play more powerful classes like soldier and demoman.  You will occasionally see people who declare themselves "career medic" or "career spy," and generally these are not the kinds of people you want to see join competitive play.  (In fact, self-proclaimed "career medics" tend to be less competent than pubstars who main soldier and play medic out of necessity.)  Telling people that "spy is a situational class and you can't really main it" is going to be alienating a few people, but you don't really lose anything by alienating those people, except as possible fans.  The pubstars, who are generally the players who you want to recruit the most, are used to playing whatever class is necessary.

I do, however, agree that there needs to be more class variety.  Currently, half of the classes are viable as mains (that is to say, 4.5 out of 9 classes are viable mains, as the sniper is viable as a main on roughly half of the maps used in competitive play).  That in and of itself is not a problem.  The problem is that 4.5 classes are viable, period.  There are many matches where you do not see ANY appearances from classes outside the standard cookie-cutter lineup.  There's nothing wrong with the fact that the pyro is a utility class.  The problem is that the pyro is so weak as a utility class that teams basically have zero incentive to use him.

I'd contend that in the context of a pub, there are even fewer classes viable as mains.  The reason that you see more class variety in pubs isn't because there are more viable mains, but because the utility classes are far, far more viable.  Demoman, soldier, and medic are all viable mains in the context of a pub (as well as scout depending on the map), but everything else is pretty situational.  (The exception is maps that have a static layout.  A/D maps where the defending team is winning are the best example, this is why the longest pub kill streaks tend to occur on the defending cycle of A/D maps.) The thing that separates pub play from competitive play is not that there are more viable mains, but that the utility classes are viable enough to be used at all.

Team Fortress 2 will never reach a point where all nine classes are equally viable.  To provide examples, the medic will always be a staple class, but the same cannot be said of the sniper.  And as a medic, I want at least half of my team to be playing as viable ubercharge targets, effectively biasing the team toward classes like soldier and demoman and away from classes like sniper and spy.  This doesn't have to result in lack of class variety.  Statistics gathered from pubs show that different classes differ in terms of usage, but you still see class variety in an average pub.

To summarize: having a competitive format with class variety is a laudable goal.  All classes should be viable--but not necessarily as mains.