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Team Fortress Overview
Let's look at a few basic rules for Team Fortress game play. By rules, I don't mean that you will be kicked off servers for not obeying these things; these aren't those kinds of rules. These are just general practice things that will make you a better player. States of perception, really; not laws.
The first one is that the the flag/intelligence is the mostimportant thing in the game. Your kill count, whether you die or not, none of this matters. If the enemy has your flag, stop what you are doing and go after them. Yes, this includes snipers.
I've played as a sniper for over 10 years and when I see "The Enemy Has Your Intelligence" appear on the screen, I switch to the machete and head straight for the spiral. 70% of the time, I kill the flag holder, as well. Some times they kill me, and sometimes they are going up the stair case.
But if no one follows this principle (which most people don't) then the flag holder will briskly walk right out of the stair case, right out the front door, and have no problem capping the flag because everyone is worrying about themselves; not the team. If people worked as a team and realized that the game is called Team Fortress, then at least one person would be waiting at the top of the stairs as well since one person can't defend the entire base.
So don't be a retard. Be a good team player. Realize that the flag, the entire point of the game, is more important than whether you can kill the other sniper for the 70th time, or get revenge on the spy, or use your uber charge, or whatever selfish, self-fulfilling thing you are looking for. You get to do that stuff for the rest of the game, but when the flag is in jeapordy, you are losing too.
Another way you can be a good team player is be a versatile player and be a good judge of situations. Let me explain.
First, you need to be good at more than one class. Preferrably one offense and one defense. Let's say you're good at Soldier and Medic, or Scout and Sniper. If you're on the Red team, and the Blue team is all defense; it's a 20 person server, and they have 7 engineers. There really is no need for you to be a Sniper; and if your team already has one, for you to have 2 snipers against a team with 7 engineers is obscene. You guys are just going to be sitting there, doing nothing.
So that is when you go scout. Likewise if your team doesn't have any snipers and your flag keeps getting taken by scouts, go sniper and try to slow them down. It's about balance; in previous versions of Team Fortress, servers had a class limit feature they could turn on. This enabled there to only be 2 snipers on a team, or 3 engineers. The new Team Fortress doesn't appear to have this feature which I love; it puts the responsibility on you: the player.
It is up to you to make sure your team is balanced.
You can't do it alone; but if everyone takes the "someone else will be an engineer" or "someone else will be a scout" approach; no one will. Be a man; take on the responsibility of being the rock of your team.