How does competitive play change Team Fortress 2?

[the_anderspawn]

I have been playing TF2 since the Orange Box came out, and I have recently been reading up on competitive play, hoping to improve my skill on public servers (I don't have the the time required for competitive gaming clans, as entertaining as that prospect sounds). I have read various guides (ubercharged.net's [link]http://www.ubercharged.net/how-to-play-tf2/the-competitive-tf2-guide/[/link] for example), which have been helpful on pub servers for the most part, but their are some aspects of the overlap between playing on pub servers and playing competitively that I still don't understand. Is the Huntsman used in competitive play, for example, and is the reason for/against its use one that applies on pub servers? Any questions, answers or insights on the matter of competitive/public overlap would be appreciated.

 

[Smowy]

you only usually play sniper if you're trashing the enemy team, and it depends on the league whether it's allowed.
Im pretty sure the sandman is banned in alot of leagues, and there's a class limit of 2 on everythging but you're only allowed 1 medic.