Remember my example from the first Teamplay-Editorial with a bunch of people meeting on a Sunday afternoon to play a friendly game of soccer?
Now imagine those people would split up into two teams and the players would run onto the field and start the game without any consultation or coordination who was doing what. Could be quite a chaotic game, don’t you think? What if on one team no one would play the goal? What if everybody would decide to play defense and nobody would attack? What if everybody would rather like to play on the left side leaving the right side wide open?
All this would not make much of a satisfying – and therefore enjoyable – game.
But then again it is rather unlikely that something like that would happen, because people on each team would consult each other, would coordinate some basic roles and would (for the most part) stick to it.
Yet something as basic as that often doesn’t happen on your typical pub game of TF2. People jump into the game and more often than not will start playing as a class and in a function without consultation or coordination, and – much worse – without further thoughts about what the team might need at that point and how the player could serve best the team. In short: Many people will not play as part of a team, but as an individual with varying concern for the team.
At this point I don’t refer to the people I discussed in the first editorial (People playing for ego or not playing properly in the first place) but to those many people who actually do play the game properly and trying to work towards the map goal, but without trying to do so in the framework of a team.
Granted, this is expecting much from a pub game.
Communication is always difficult. Not everybody is using a headset and typed messages are always dodgy during intense games. And communication can even be impossible when people don’t speak a common language.
The level of skill and awareness is probably hugely differing, and the willingness to take over a less popular role and/or class varies from person to person.
Yet the essence of teamplay is to compromise and create an effective group which hopefully can work together to achieve the respective goal of the map.
Not doing so means to disregard one of the major aspects of Team Fortress.
Let’s get a bit more specific:
Since TF2 is a class-based game with an elaborate class balance system (a fact which a lot of people apparently haven’t grasped entirely yet, so it’s bound to be addressed by some future editorial) it is a necessity to make use of the different classes to achieve the map goal, sometimes requiring adapting the classes used to various stages of a map and to the class setup featured by the opposing team. A CP-map may profit from scouts, a well defended capture point needs medics and heavy classes, the presence of enemy spies requires pyros, a good enemy sniper may need a counter-sniper (*cringe*) or a spy/scout to remove this threat.
As fluid as the game the choices of the classes must be, and those choices must be made not only in reaction to the current situation, but also in tune with the classes played by the other members of the team.
If the enemy has a good spy you need one or two pyros. Not 9. If you run into heavy defense you will need medics, but you will also need classes which can effectively attack this defense with the help of those medic(s). Attacking two separate sentries works better with an ubered demo or pyro than a Heavy.
There are a few, actually very simple guiding points to the basics of class layout:
• With a few exceptions there is no need to have more than 3 people playing the same class, in many cases 2 is enough.
• In many situations a team should feature a certain number of heavy classes.
• A team should have a medic.
• Pretty much each class was designed with certain weakness which can be exploited by another class. It is smart to reflect an enemy line-up with the own class layout in that regard.
• Skill should be taken into consideration. An unskilled sniper or spy is usually of little help to his team, while an unskilled heavy or medic can still have an impact.
With TF2 Valve has made it very easy to see the current class layout with one look, since the class selection screen shows that information not once, but twice in a different way. So there is no excuse not to register which classes might be missing and which might be overrepresented.
And it’s always a smart idea to check on the class layout every now and then, but it becomes a necessity the moment things start to get wrong and the opponent appears to get the upper hand. If teams are even skill-wise it’s almost a safe bet that the reason can be found in a flawed class layout.
Let me boil that down to 5 simple keywords:
• Diversification
• Emphasis
• Coordination
• Communication
• Awareness
(which can be shortened into a fancy acronym: DECCA) 
Diversification:
TF2 has nine different classes, and each class has its specific use and purpose. While the usefulness of certain classes may vary depending on map and situation having a variety of classes in a team is usually a good idea and should be used for full effect.
Emphasis (or Focus):
Some maps or certain situations lend themselves to certain classes. On a CP-map like Granary a scout rush can be a smart move. Chokepoints or well defended CPs may require an uber to be able to break through or cap. Consequently an uber is a very effective countermeasure (but a pyro with compression blast can be an alternative as well).
Apart from ubers a soldier (or perhaps a demo) is a good class to attack and remove sentries from outside its range. Failing (or complementing) that there a spy may be an appropriate option.
All these examples should demonstrate that in certain situation the emphasis of the class-layout shifts towards specific classes to achieve a specific objective, and consequently some people on the team have to take on that task.
Coordination:
Depending on the map the team has to cover different grounds and different functions. A CTF map requires offense as well as defense. A map with different routes has to have people using or covering those routes. A CP has to be defended while other team-members may provide forward defense.
Such a partitioning of roles is necessary for a team to succeed. Coordination usually is handled by Communication, but with experience coordination can be achieved (to some degree) by simply watching each other and react to each other (Awareness).
Communication
Passing information to your teammates about enemy movements, positions of sentries or imminent threats (e.g. spies, enemy ubers) is an invaluable asset to teamwork. Combined with the possibility to coordinate the own team’s efforts this is the most powerful weapon TF2 has to offer, and sadly the most underrated and underused!
Awareness:
As already mentioned above, team members not only have to watch and react to the opposing team, but to their own team as well. Depending on the situation team members have to complement, amplify or support each other.
For that people have to watch the class layout, try to keep track of each other’s positions and assumed roles, try to keep track of the enemy teams classes, movements and positions as well and keep an eye on the overall flow of the game (Perfect example is Badwater with red team is battling the attackers on the hill while the cart proceeds unharmed towards the first CP through the tunnel). Sounds like a lot of stuff to keep track of, but as with most things it gets easier with practice and experience 
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All this isn’t even that much elaborate. This is pretty much the fundament on which team-based tactics and strategies are built upon. Good players will do that by instinct. The not-so-good players (with or without clan tags) still have to make an effort 
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And while I realize that a pub game is not comparable to a clan match (different beasts, so that’s fine) I’d wish more people would try to make such an effort and grace a common pub game with some basic teamwork. Try to lead by example and encourage others to put a bit more TEAM into Team Fortress 
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Anything beyond that – aforementioned tactics and strategies - I will spare you. This is outside the focus of this site.
There are lots of other sites covering advanced tactics and offer advice on playing classes, also tons of forums where you can pick up and discuss tactics, and - as I suspect - a lot more people willing to talk about intricate details of offense strategies on Goldrush than about the value of teamplay on a pub game.
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