This.. yeah, I'm going to sound whiney, but I'm frustrated enough to care.

Anyone who's friends with me on Steam knows I love Team Fortress 2 (and if you're not friends with me yet, get on that fast). I've played well over 550 hours total and I normally log in some time every day for the sake of messing around. It's one of my favorite games, and I like to believe I'm fairly decent at it despite my lack of skill in shooting games as a whole. However, it also manages to piss me off like no other game has before, and for any number of reasons.

I'm extremely competitive by nature. I never really like to admit it, but it's true. I study hard in school not so I can get a more rounded education, but so I can score higher than my peers. I've stayed late at work every day for the past month not because it was the right thing to do but because I wanted to edge out my coworkers for the supervisor's praise. I lie to myself about it, but I just want the accolade that comes with being the best. It's shameful, to be sure, but I can't help it. It's just the way I am.

Video games are no exception. However, they're also where I fail the hardest. While I'm overall "decent," I'm very easily stumbled and make dumb mistakes constantly.

You ever see a guy back onto his own grenade in Halo? Me.
You ever see a guy get into the wrong side of cover in Gears of War? Me.
You ever see anyone pick Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros? Me.

However, even despite all this, I'm still fairly good at these games. Quite often I score on the higher side of the board, Team Fortress 2 being no exception; I'm in the top three quite a bit, or at least close behind. Yet I find myself extremely irritated by it. TF2 is a game built on a balance, but not a conventional one: each class is made to counterbalance another in a grand rock-paper-scissors format. That's not to say you can't beat certain classes based on what you're playing, but the challenge is different. This poses a problem for me, because I like being able to tackle any challenge myself, but the option simply isn't there.

There are two things in TF2 I'm never able to counter as any of my preferred classes: A Heavy with a pocket Medic who knows his shit, and good Engineer networks. Maybe it's just me, but once either of those has been established on the other team, I'm ready to call it a day. The two counters to these would be a Spy to get around behind them and a Demoman, respectively, but I'm utter shit as both of those. I've practiced with both and they're just not conducive to my play style of "spray and pray, reload, do it again." So that's where the "Team" aspect comes in. But- again, maybe just me- this is where crap falls apart. Random teams may work well, but they don't work well together most of the time.

I still love TF2, honestly. It's one of my favorite games and at the end of the day I'm still good at it, or at least I like to think so. It just makes me bash my head against a wall when I can't beat a pair of people no matter what I try, especially when the rest of their team is awful and they're carrying really hard. But when I play with friends, it remains the best game in the world even in defeat, because the teamwork factor actually seems to exist. (Note: This is WITH friends. Playing against friends yields the same result.)

I'm going to go play a little more before work and hope I don't run into any more of what's listed here. Sorry about the vent, guys! I promise I'll try and be funny next time.