Team Fortress 2 - The Problems with Contracts

Contracts are a great way to introduce new items to players. You'll need to learn how to use the item effectively before you're allowed to keep the item. This is all theoretical, because Valve has yet to expand it to classes other than the Pyro. But how does this limitation create a problem?

Contracts themselves aren't new to TF2. You've been able to complete contracts to get weapon skins for quite awhile at this point in time, but a somewhat recent update allowed you to unlock new Pyro weapons (and a Heavy item) by completing contracts with that item.

The issue is that Pyro is the only class that has contracts available that unlock new items. This means that every team in the game is going to have far more Pyros than any team should have. I personally have gone onto a server, only to find that my team is losing terribly and it has four Pyros. 

The overabundance of Pyros is already discouraging to players who just entered a server. Another problem is that these Pyros are required to use weapons that they have little to no experience with, and in one particular case, a weapon that isn't fun to use or effective.

The Hot Hand is probably my least favorite weapon in the game, and certainly the worst one in the Jungle Inferno update. It does 20% less damage than the default. The only non-cosmetic advantage is the speed boost you get when you hit an enemy with the weapon. This weapon, and subsequently the contract that unlocks the weapon, isn't fun. You either need to wait until an enemy is hurt enough to be killed in roughly two hits, or you need to find a player who has no idea how TF2 works. You also need to fight the broken melee mechanics of TF2 itself, which doesn't help.

Contracts are a neat idea to make new weapons obtainable without needing to randomly acquire one or trade for one. I hope that they bring contracts to other classes that unlock items, and not just one class at a time. I also hope they never introduce a weapon as terrible as the Hot Hand to the game again.