I may have called it a C, and it frustrates me to no end from time to time… but I can’t quit it.
I’m revising my grade for a pickup game: B+ for 2fort. C- for the rest. You can get by in CTF with a lot of lousy teams if you’re good enough, and careful to constantly shift classes to single-handedly adapt to the rock-paper-scissors strategic situation. You can’t specialize.
Also, the people who just run around trying to kill things and rack up points can be useful if you play off of them and fill in the role they aren’t. Again and again I’ve been the behind the scenes MVP just doing the grunt work that sets up good wins, playing this way.
It’s still frustrating when your team is really bad and the other team is pretty good, because then you just have no hope. It’s also frustrating when some guy changes to being a Sniper just after you do, so then you change to fill in the gap he left behind, and then he changes out too. Or when both teams are heavily loaded with Engineers, so even switching to Spy and trying to soften them up is worthless because your teammates don’t come in after you and take advantage.
I’m finding that the other modes are really, really hit or miss though. Just running around aimlessly can’t be played off of in the control point modes. When the other team invades or defends as a unit, you just can’t afford to be shorthanded like that. The defeats get brutal.
But yeah, I’m the battered wife of Team Fortress 2.