There are so many possible combinations, that even if there was an actual best class composition, some people may still do better with a "worse" one, for nothing else but natural inclination.
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I also have to clarify something many people don't seem to understand: The standard 6s competitive lineup 1 medic, 1 demo, 2 scouts and 2 soldier is NOT the best way to go. Sure, it is still a pretty solid class composition in any given scenario, but it becomes the only one viable only when you apply certain rules to the game in the form of class limits and item bans. Without the formers, a lot of different combinations that were not possible before become viable, and you are not forced into that specific team composition. So please, don't try to turn matchmaking in MvM, thanks.
So, what defines an "effective class composition"? Or better, what makes a class composition "effective"? Well, before answering we have to take a look at the gamemode we are playing, and see what a team needs to achieve in order to win. Currently, competitive matchmaking supports only 5cp and koth maps. What do teams need to achieve on 5cp maps? Usually, those things are, in no particular order: Have a good offensive power Have a good defensive power Be able to hold ground Move quickly around the map Be able to adapt to the current situation advantages, remember?
On koth, your objectives keep being quite the same, but mobility becomes slighty less important because the maps are quite small, while having a good offensive power becomes even more important, since you want to start attacking as soon as possible due to the timer.
Offensive and defensive powers are quite self-explainatory: Holding ground may seem the same as having good defensive power, but it is a bit different: However, they need the support of their team in order to prevent enemies from rushing them: This makes them great to defend a point with the support of a teammate who can hold the ground for them, but weak when they have to hold ground for themselves The latter two are pretty easy to understand: Being able to adapt to the current situation pretty much sums up all of the above, and means being able to react better to the advantages and disadvantages situation, and in the end having a better chance of all your plays being successful.
Knowing these parameters, you can choose your class composition based on your team's preference.
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The classes to run, are opt to your judgement: I already know that this section alone is going to bring me so much hate. But I have to cover this argument too, for the greater good. Before reading this, please make sure you have an open mind about this argument, and before flaming me for saying your main is not viable full time, please take some time to read my argumentations, and if you can find some counter-argument, I would be happy to read them.
If you decide not to care about my suggestions and keep running your favourite class full time, go ahead, I will not stop you. Also, keep in mind that I am talking about high level matchups. Of course, everything can work in low level play, simply because of how teams are disorganized and the big skill gap between people. If you can be effective playing your main full time in your rank, just go ahead and do it.
While playing a match, it is important to remember that you are not forced to play the class you start with all the time. It may sound obvious, but it is important to remember that you are able to switch between different classes mid game, doing what in 6s is called "offclassing". If you are forced to defend last, you may as well switch a scout to heavy or engineer, because in that situation they are far better, and switch back to scout once you are done defending.
If you need a pick so badly, going sniper or spy may be a good choice. In the end, you are not glued to your main, and often having a dynamic team composition is the best way to go.
In order to win, you need to be able to balance out each class strenghts and weaknesses according to the current situation. In a way, classes are like tools: To win, you need to put aside the thought of having a main class that you will play all the time, but rather accept that you will often have to switch off your main with some classes more than with the others, but that's another story. To start talking about each class in particular, I divided them into two major groups: The core classes, demoman and medic, are just what they sound like: They are the very basics on which your team relies, and on which all of your and your opponent's plays should be based on.
In all of the possible situations, your team needs to have at least one player going medic, and one player going demoman, or either you will be put in a serious disadvantage. If you main one of these, you may as well forget what I said about offclassing, and play your main full time. Still, learning at least another class is useful if someone else on your team is willing to play main, and you are planning on queueing alone.
Before going over the single classes, there is something I would like to underline: Having a demoman who can't land a sticky, or a medic that dies right off the bat, is not going to do anything useful to your team. If you find yourself in one of these situations, you should rather tell your teammates about that. If you are lucky, someone may fill the last spot, and you could play the class you feel you will have the most impact with. After all, you are all on the same boat! If you do badly, your teammates will do badly too. That being said, everyone in my opinion should be able to averagely play medic, and every decent soldier should be able to play demo too, at least at a very basic level.
Now, we can go over each core class more in detail: A medic, for obvious reason, is needed on a team. In many's opinions, medic is the class on which the whole game is based on. If you don't have one on your team, you may as well give up the match: A less obvious argument that I want to go over, is a strategy that many people, for some reason, underrate: I am surprised at how many people consider this tactic to be worthless or even harmful: I personally dislike it, and consider it stupidly overpowered, but, for the greater science, I am going to explain it to you.
What do having two medics means?
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After all, to run two medics you are giving up a possible firepower class, and basically putting yourself one man down in every fight. Compared to that, two medics aren't going to heal much better than one can already do, since there are only 5 other players to heal. And the power of two ubers is not even that great, considered that a good team can just do as well using only one. So, what's the point of two medics? The point of two medics is that, if played right, it can overcome a single medic's main weakness: The two medics can heal, or even better, overheal each other, reaching the crazy hp level of , which is a lot.
And even if the enemy does manage to get a med pick, guess what? There is another one ready to do the job! And I am not finished yet! Now a scout is chasing the medic down, but, again, guess what happens? The medic is full hp, because the other one healed him! Double medics can be so much powerful, but there is a, quote on quote, "flaw" in the strat: So, it isn't the best idea trying this out if you play with randoms.
But, if you plan a 5 or 6 men premade match, there is no reason not to, even if you should fell worse than a thief for doing so. Now, let's go over the second core class by importance: That's right, going demoknight is not interchangeable with going demoman. If you are planning on using shield and sword, at least tell your teammates not to rely on you to be the demoman. So, why is the demoman, that again, uses both an explosive grenade laucher and a sticky bomb laucher, so much important, out of all the other classes?
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The short answer is: The long answer, is: A demoman alone can slow down so much a whole team that needs to push though a choke point, and having at least one on the team is necessity in order to win a round. Not as much as a medic is, but he still has a very high priority. You know, when playing pubs, you want to get to a certain area, cross the door, see rockets and stickies flying in the air, and immediatly go back?
Well, the same thing happens in competitive. The demoman's job is to literally spam the hell out of the the enemy team, to force them to either fall back or eat a large amount of damage, possibly forcing the enemy uber if they have it. And don't get started on "stickyspam noob" , a team needs to do what it takes to win, and no one ever said that you can't spam stickies and be skilled at the same time.
Currently stickies are the most effective weapon to deal mid to long range splash damage. Fellow demomen, don't be afraid to use your stickies offensively: If spam is the main offset of the demo, stickytraps are just as important. When you are not spamming the enemy, consider lying down some defensive stickytraps.
Maybe even spawncamping the enemy forward spawns, if you have the chance. Sure, many team will check for traps, but it will take time away from them.
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And who knows, you may get lucky and drop a medic. The only dowside to demo is that he requires a lot of heals from the medic. He is the class that will sit on the choke most of the time, will get focused the most after the medic and possibly heavy , and will rely on taking a lot of self damage in order to move faster and fight in close quarters.
To all the fellow medics, remember to give a demo all the heals he may need, and to keep him overhealed. A demoman without heals is like a sky without stars. Classes were not made equal. Some of them are far better than others in different scenario, but can become worse if the situation changes. Situational classes are exactly that: Despite this, you can still run a situational class full time and can be effective with that, but, in certain situation, another class may have done the job better.
For example, a full time scout can go heavy to defend last point, go scout again when he needs to push out, go sniper to get a med pick and push into their last point, or even go soldier if the enemy is spamming a lot of mini-sentries. In the end, it all comes down to your ability to adapt and take advantage of the current situation. Here comes a brief analysis of each class, in no particular order: He does good in most situations, both attacking and defending, he is the strongest deathmatch class in the game, being able to take out any class in a fair 1v1.
For this reason, scout's job is usually to clean up low hp enemies, since his scattergun can be a very reliable damage dealer from mid range. That's not saying he can't take face to face fight, beware. A dedicated scout main can play both in the combo or on the flank, and even quickly switch between these roles. The reason of scout's strenght is in the map pool: Their natural high movement speed allows them to easily chase enemies down and easily fall back in case of danger, and the 2x cap speed may not sound like much, but it really comes in handy during fast paced games.
If you, by chance, are surprised to hear all of this about scout, and never considered it more than an annoyance class, you should think again. In pubs, scout may seem weak, due to the amount of spam and stalemates, but with only a decent amount of players and a limited amount of spam, coupled with a favoreable map pool, his strenght grows esponentially. If you still don't believe a word about what I said, just watch this.