Warning: This is an extremely long post. Do not read unless you are comfortable and ready for a long read. There will not be a tl;dr version.

With the long-awaited update to Valve's own official competitive mode approaching, I'd like to reflect on the current issues with taking weapons balanced (primarily) around the casual scene into the 6s format, as well as general weapon balance issues that don't have a specific effect on the game. The primary focus will be on the 6s format, as this appears to be the format that Valve is endorsing as their idea of competitive TF2, but I will still cover weapons allowed in 6s but banned in Highlander/4v4.

Weapon stats are post-Jungle Inferno and are accurate as of January 10, 2018. The 6s banlist used is the Global Banlist as of January 20, 2018. The Banlist was last updated January 25, 2017.

6v6 is a community-created format of competitive TF2 that existed as early as 2007. Teams are limited to two of each class, with the exceptions of Medic and Demoman, which are limited to one. 6v6 matches are mainly played on 5cp maps, but are also commonly played on koth maps. The general meta is 1 Demoman, 1 Medic, 2 Soldiers (1 protecting the Medic, the other attempting to flank the enemy team) and 2 utilities, usually both Scouts. The other classes are not usually run all-game due to low mobility or poor combative ability.

6s fosters very different playstyles to a 12v12 casual server, and so weapons that are balanced in casual may not be so in 6s. As such, the competitive community bans various unlockable weapons (never stock weapons), due to being overpowered and therefore discouraging variety; forcing the enemy team to run the same weapon to avoid being at a passive disadvantage; or simply being bugged/not having the intended stats.

Currently the 6s Global Banlist bans 24 weapons, along with a handful of Cosmetic items. Of these 24, 10 were reworked in Jungle Inferno and are likely waiting to be unbanned. The below text will explain the reason for the ban, then suggest a way to balance the weapon to no longer need a ban.

Scout Weapons

Soda Popper

The Soda Popper currently has the ability to grant its' user 5 mid-air jumps after filling the Hype meter. In the highly Medic-centric 6v6 meta, it is not particularly difficult to obtain Hype mode at least once per life. A Scout with Hype is nearly impossible to kill with Rockets or Grenades, and often requires both enemy Scouts to focus the Hyped Scout in order to kill him. This, coupled with the fact that non-Hyped Soda Popper Scout has a combative ability easily as strong as a Scout wielding the Scattergun, makes a Soda Popper Scout very overpowered.

To make the Soda Popper balanced in 6s, the SP would have to either have a significantly reduced Hype mode, or punish Hyped Scouts severely for not dodging.

Suggestion 1: Make Hype mode less effective by reducing the 5 mid-air jumps to 2. This would still make the weapon great for dodging projectiles, but not quite as ridiculous as it currently is.

Suggestion 2: Severely punish Hyped Scouts if they fail to dodge an attack. Have the Scout Marked for Death during Hype mode, making any error an immediate death sentence.

Suggestion 3: Completely remove the added mid-air jumps, replacing it with additional movement speed or health regeneration.

Bonk! Atomic Punch

Pre-Jungle Inferno this weapon offered the ability to pierce the enemy defence with no real downside (lack of a Secondary weapon isn't necessarily a big problem for Scout, who isn't suited to prolonged combat). However, the JI changes made a Scout phasing with Bonk! much easier to shut down, making this weapon potentially fit for unbanning.

As stated above, the JI changes were probably enough to make this weapon no longer problematic in 6s.

Crit-a-Cola

Guaranteed mini-crits is an extremely powerful ability in 6s, and is the reason for several weapon bans in the format. A mini-crit Grenade, Sticky Bomb, Rocket or Scattergun blast at close range will 1-shot a Scout, and a Medic taking mini-crits is as good as dead. The ability to give oneself guaranteed mini-crits for 8 seconds at the cost of no Pistol is an incredibly powerful ability. The JI nerf was a step in the right direction, but the C-a-C still has the ability to wipe out several enemy players in the 8s of mini-crits, an ability that a Pistol Scout simply does not have. This makes the weapon still very overpowered in 6s (and 12v12).

A Scout with C-a-C should not be able to kill several enemies whilst under its effects, and he should be nearly guaranteed dead should he not be able to kill his enemy during the effects. I suggest that the effect be shortened to 6 seconds, and that the Scout be slowed by 20% for 4 seconds after the effect wears off. This would ensure that the Scout cannot easily kill the enemy Soldier-Medic combo, and would also make the Scout easily killable by the enemy Scouts after the effect wears off.

Flying Guillotine

The infamous combination of the Sandman and the Flying Guillotine, noted for its ability to quickly kill nearly any enemy given enough aiming ability was a recipe for disaster in the competitive scene. The ability to easily pick off the enemy Medic at mid-range gave Scout mid-range abilities far exceeding Demoman and Soldier. The weapon was banned for being extremely overpowered. Simply banning the Sandman would not have been enough, as the weapon could still slaughter enemies stunned by the Nastascha.

However, like several weapons on the banlist, this weapon was reworked in the Jungle Inferno update. Specifically, this weapon no longer deals massive damage to stunned enemies, and works as a rechargeable mid-range finishing weapon. As such, it is potentially balanced and may soon be unbanned.

Mad Milk

Whilst not the most dangerous throwable bodily fluid on this list, the Mad Milk still provides exceptional supportive ability. During a mid-fight (the first fight in a 5cp/koth match), simply staying alive is the best way to help your team to capture the point. Teams also tend to show up together, and tend to be bunched up at the start of the fight. The ability to coat multiple enemies, or potentially the entire enemy team with the sticky fluid with questionable origins can completely turn the tide of battle in your favour with very little difficulty or risk, is far too powerful. If your Soldier can simply jump into the entire enemy team and kill half of them without being killable himself, your team is basically guaranteed to take the point. The weapon also gives you much higher survivability in a 1v1. As such, the weapon is overpowered.

The ability to coat multiple enemies, and the ability to easily coat a single enemy could be removed with a few changes. The most simple change would be to drastically reduce the splash radius of the projectile. This would prevent coating multiple enemies (unless the enemy team is too bunched up), and would require more accurate aim to coat a single enemy. Giving a longer delay on the throwing of the projectile would also discourage Scouts from using it in a standard 1v1, making it only really effective when ambushing an enemy.

The second change I recommend is making the Milk (and by extension other debuffs like Jarate and general Mark-for-Death) removable via Medic healing, similar to how Bleeding and Afterburn can be removed by the Cart, a Dispenser or a Med-beam. This would make throwing at groups of enemies less effective, and would allow Milked enemies to retreat to their Medic to be cleansed.

The third change, and one that could potentially be difficult to implement, is to make the healing effect apply the same 'crit-healing' curve that the Medigun has. What this would mean is players who had not been recently damaged would heal the full 60% of damage dealt (or even more, maybe?), but players who had been damaged in the last 10 seconds would only heal 20%. This would prevent the 'roaming-Soldier-bombing-entire-enemy-team-and-being-basically-invincible' situation, and would also stop the weapon being an easy-win button in Scout 1v1s. It would still allow Scouts with crit heals active to get health back quickly, however, and would allow low-health Scouts to ambush enemies without instantly dying.

Atomiser

Prior to Jungle Inferno, this weapon was banned due to its ability to passively grant its user 2 mid-air jumps for no downside. The update removed this ability, requiring the weapon to be actively wielded to use the second mid-air jump. However, the update also added a buggy attribute: Mini-crits whilst airborne. This stat is intended to apply only to the Atomiser, but due to a bug, the mini-crits can be passed on to other weapons, as seen in this video. The weapon has remained banned due to its glitched state.

The previous issue with the weapon (being able to jump twice in mid-air without any visible indication of being able to do so, and no real downside to balance the ability) has been fixed, so once the bug with the weapon is fixed, it will likely be unbanned.

Sandman

As covered in the Flying Guillotine section, the Sandman-Guillotine combo was extremely overpowered until it was removed in the Jungle Inferno update. Even by itself, the ability to render the enemy unable to attack, and prevent them from fleeing, with an insufficent downside (-15 max hp) was overpowered and irritating to fight and use.

The weapon was reworked substantially in the Jungle Inferno update, and now only slows enemies (and damages them slightly). This means that it is no longer irritating to fight against, and is likely fit to be unbanned.

Soldier Weapons

B.A.S.E. Jumper

I'm starting to sound like a broken record less than halfway through the post, but this weapon gave a very powerful ability before being reworked in Jungle Inferno. In this instance, the B.A.S.E. Jumper gave the ability to cancel ones' own momentum mid-air several times, similar to the Scout's mid-air jumps. The ability to redeploy the parachute in mid-air meant that a Soldier could dodge projectiles with ease.

Again, this weapon was reworked in Jungle Inferno. It is no longer capable of redeploying in the air, so the Soldier using it is limited to 1 mid-air dodge at the most, at the cost of no Secondary weapon. As such the weapon seems balanced, if a little crutchy, and is probably ready to be unbanned now.

Reserve Shooter

This weapon was banned on Pyro for being a scourge on humanity, and was probably banned on Soldier because the inbuilt weapon banslist mechanic is bad. Post-Jungle Inferno, this weapon is terrible on Pyro and incredibly underwhelming on Soldier, and could use a complete rework. In its current state, it's arguable that it gives Soldiers who can reliably pop enemies into the air too much of an advantage, but doing so is difficult, and using the RS on popped-up enemies is potentially less effective than just firing another Rocket, so I argue that the weapon is not overpowered, and is in fact very underpowered and just bad.

Suggested Change: Remove the mini-crits on airborne targets mechanic. Increase the switch speed boost to 50%, and give it slower reload speed. This makes it better as emergency switch-to weapon, but worse for continued combat, without encroaching too much on the recently redesigned Panic Attack.

Disciplinary Action

'Rolling out' to mid at the start of the round is a time competitive players spend countless painful hours trying to perfect in order to give themselves that sweet, sweet half-a-second advantage over the enemy team. Teams co-ordinate heal orders, health-pack allocations and even explosive jumps in the pre-round freeze to maximise the effectiveness of their time and ensure that everyone arrives at mid as quickly as possible, with as much health as possible. The Disciplinary Action gives a big middle-finger to that, and allows the Soldier and one lucky ally to roll out quickly without explosive-jumping. Given that teams are allowed 2 Soldiers, and will generally have 2 Scouts as well, the Disciplinary Action could make complex rollouts defunct and significantly lower the skill level difference between a fantastic player and a god-like player. A smaller side-issue is that it allows a Pocket Soldier to escape from the enemy with the Medic with little risk. As such the weapon isn't overpowered per se, just very regressive and boring.

Recommended change: Make the length of the speed-boost scale with the health of the player (as in, less health, you don't get boosted for as long. Reads each player's health separately when calculating boost times). This would make the weapon less amazing for rollouts (though still really good), and would prevent easy low-health escapes (that's what the Escape Plan is for). Admittedly this change probably wouldn't be completely effective, but it's better than nothing.

Pyro Weapons

Reserve Shooter

This weapon was ludicrously overpowered on Pyro prior to Jungle Inferno. Now it's pretty bad, unless you're working with an ally Soldier, and even then it is very underwhelming. Go read the analysis of this weapon in the Soldier section if you want my rework idea.

Demoman Weapons

Currently no Demoman weapons are banned. The Loch-n-Load used to be banned, but after its 20% damage stat was changed to 20% damage vs buildings, it's become a weird crutchy weapon that isn't used much in competitive.

Heavy Weapons (ha)

Buffalo Steak Sandvich

So apparently this is banned in 6s. The weapon gives the Heavy, a class balanced around slow movement, a way to roll-out slightly faster. However, the weapon does basically nothing for the Heavy after he rolls out, and costs him his Sandvich/Banana/Shotgun. I suppose people think this is overpowered.

I don't think this weapon needs any changes. The changes in Jungle Inferno made it almost viable as a meme weapon, but it still doesn't match up to any of his other Secondaries in serious play. I guess they could make it take a bit longer to eat?

Fists of Steel

Before Jungle Inferno, an overhealed Heavy with the FoS active had an effective 750 Health, plus health regen. This made a Heavy a near invulnerable road-block if he was blocking the point. This was overpowered.

The Jungle Inferno nerf of -40% max overheal and -40% healing from healers has made this strategy far less effective, and I personally believe the weapon is now suitable for unbanning.

Gloves of Running Urgently

Heavy is balanced around low movement speed, making him less effective at attacking than Soldier, Demoman and Scout. The GRU increases his movement speed when active by 30%, for a downside that, even after the Jungle Inferno update, doesn't really give much risk to using the weapon. The weapon is very overpowered, and if unbanned in its current state would be an instapick for all Heavies.

Rather than nerf what makes the weapon interesting (more mobility), I believe the weapon should be made a dedicated highly-mobile flank-Heavy weapon, one that synergises well with the Tomislav and Second Banana.

Suggested Change: Remove current downside. Replace with -50 max HP. Make Second Banana still regen 200 HP, though. This would discourage Heavies from running the weapon full-time, as a 250/375 HP Heavy would be unable to defend as easily, and would be less of a roadblock. The weapon would also potentially synergise with the Dalokohs Bar.

Eviction Notice

Ok, this one isn't actually banned in 6s, nor is it banned anywhere, but I'd like to see Valve treat this weapon as something other than just a mini-GRU. The current losing-max-health thing makes the weapon borderline useless, and is also buggy.

Suggestion 1: Remove the instant removal of 20 max HP when switching to the EV. It is this mechanic that makes the small speed boost the weapon provides nearly inisgnificant, as the Heavy takes a long time to regain the lost health. Also fix the general bugginess of the mechanic (being able to go below 100 max HP, not regaining health from the resupply cabinet).

Suggestion 2: Revert the weapon to pre-Jungle Inferno status. The weapon was fine as it was, it really didn't need anything done to it. Keep it as a distinctly different weapon to the GRU.

Suggestion 3: Remove lose-max-health downside, replace with pre-JI GRU downsides of marked for death when wielded and for 2 seconds after switching away. Would discourage Heavies from using these whenever possible, and would also make the weapon funner in x10 (Not that that gamemode should be a consideration for weapon-balancing, I just wanted to mention it).

Engineer Weapons

Rescue Ranger

This is the one I really wanted to talk about, because the Jungle Inferno nerf really rubbed me the wrong way.

Firstly, the downsides to using the Rescue Ranger. The main one that discourages use in 12v12 is the loss of the Shotgun for self-defence. The Rescue Ranger has very poor offensive capabilities, and it is often run alongside the Wrangler, making a Sentryless Engineer very weak. However, Spies are uncommon in 6s, and if one does show up your teammates will usually deal with it for you, allowing you to simply focus on removing the Sapper and healing your building. Also worth mentioning that you are marked for death when moving a building, even if you didn't pick it up with the Rescue Ranger. This can be avoided by not moving through an enemy sightline carrying a building.

The Rescue Ranger provided several great utilities to the Engineer. They were:

• Healing buildings at range

• Healing buildings actively taking splash damage without putting yourself in the firing line

• Healing buildings for no metal

• Picking up buildings at range for added mobility

• Picking up buildings at range actively taking damage to rescue them from potential destruction

Of these, 1, 3 and 4 are useful utilities that make the Engineer's life much easier, but do not have negative effects on the enemy players. However, the ability to heal or rescue a building (let's be real here, 99% of the time this will be your Sentry) when it is actively taking damage can completely stuff the enemy push by what is effectively standing in a safe place and pressing M1 or M2.

When your Sentry is attacked by an Ubered Soldier, Demoman or even Heavy/Pyro, you have two options:

• Move close to the Sentry and swing your wrench at the Sentry to repair it. You increase the chance of your Sentry surviving the push, but place your squishy 125 HP body in the firing line, and you may potentially die from splash or be intentionally focused down.

• Keep your distance from the Sentry. Without repairs, your Sentry will likely go down, but you will be alive to build another Sentry, provided your team can deal with the enemy push.

However, having the Rescue Ranger allows you to heal off 240 damage in a single clip, without putting yourself at risk of taking splash damage. It also allows you to rescue the Sentry to a safe place, wait for your team to deal with the enemy push, then simply place the Sentry back in place.

The change in Jungle Inferno removed one of the good utilities of the weapon (free healing, which is of immense importance for metal conservation), but did not deal with the two issues with the weapon.

The ability to rescue your Sentry when it is actively taking damage is powerful, but is also an integral part of the weapon's design/name. It also makes your Sentry unable to tank or do damage for at least 4 seconds, plenty of time for the enemy team to push into your team.

However, I believe the ability to heal a building taking damage at range is far too powerful and irritating to fight. I suggest these changes:

• Bring back the free healing. This wasn't a problem, removing this just made the weapon less fun to use.

• If a buliding takes damage in the same tick it is healed by a RR bolt, it will receive 0 healing. The healing will increase as the time since last damage increases, reaching max healing at 2 seconds without taking damage.

If a Demoman puts Stickies around your Sentry when it is low-health, you will still be able to boost its health to 216 before the Stickies detonate. If a Heavy/Pyro engages your Sentry, you will be unable to heal your building at range. Finally, if a Soldier spams your Sentry from range, you will need good timing to get the most of your bolts, and you will still be unable to tank it for very long.

Short Circuit

This weapon allows an Engineer to shut down enemy Soldiers/Demomen with relative ease. The weapon still relies on really good timing, which is a good start, but more needs to be done. The weapon is overpowered in the explosives-ridden 6s meta of double Soldier, one Demoman.

My suggestion is a simple one: 25% increased damage vulnerability from Explosives. A highly skilled Engineer, like a highly skilled Pyro, will still be able to keep themselves safe from Grenades and Rockets, but a less skilled Engineer will be 1-shot by these explosives unless using the Gunslinger. And maybe decrease metal consumption of the primary attack, to compensate for the nerf.

Wrangler

The Wrangler is a common sight for defensive Engineers, due to its ability to reduce incoming damage to the Sentry, as well as increase the firing rate of the Sentry (Rockets moreso than Bullets). It also grants the Sentry limitless range, and can be used for an advanced mobility technique known as Wrangler-Jumping. The weapon is somewhat irritating to fight in a 12v12, but with several people focussing fire, even a 648 HP Sentry will go down quickly. In 6s, however, this is deemed far too powerful, and the weapon is banned.

The limitless range is fine, and the increased attack speed isn't complained about much, so I guess that means it's fine too. Wrangler-jumping adds a skill-indexed level of play to the Engineer, increasing the skill ceiling, so there's no problem there. The problem stems from the -66% damage from all sources stat. It's simply far too strong, and allows the Sentry to take far too much damage.

Suggestion 1: Flat reduction of the shield's power to -40% damage taken. The Sentry will now go down to 4 Rockets.

Suggestion 2: Keep the shield at -66%, but after 5 seconds of being shielded have it slowly decrease to -20%, taking 10 seconds to do so. The shield should visually fade as this occurs.

Suggestion 3: The shield starts weak, at -20%, but will build in strength the longer the Sentry is wrangled. Resets upon weapon switch, is not reset by Engineer death.

Bonus Suggestion: more of a general Engineer buff that only comes into play when using the Wrangler, but give the Engineer some resistance to his own Sentry Rockets. -30% should do the trick. Should not affect airblast-reflected Rockets.

Southern Hospitality

Like the Eviction Notice, this weapon isn't actually banned in 6s (or any league, for that matter). Most unlockable melees for the Engineer have a massive change on the way the class plays. The Gunslinger makes you a Battle Engi, less reliant on your Sentry and more reliant on your Shotgun. The Jag makes you better at erecting and upgrading buildings quicker, but makes keeping them alive harder. The Eureka Effect allows you to teleport around the map, but makes erecting buildings harder when not utilising the teleport ability. Then there's the Southern Hospitality, with its ability to make enemies bleed for a couple seconds when you hit them, but you die a bit faster from Pyros. Riveting stuff

Long-term, the SH needs a full rework, but short-term, the addition of a single stat would give it a use: Guaranteed Critical Hits when Explosive Jumping. This would make it the dedicated 'Market Pardnering' weapon. Pulling off a Wrangler-jump-into-melee-hitting-an-enemy manoeuvre is difficult to do, usually results in your death immediately afterwards, and only has an ~30% chance of working anyway (due to relying on random crits). With the Southern Hospitality, you would be rewarded with guaranteed 195 damage melee swings, plus some extra damage from bleeding, allowing you to secure kills on enemy Soldiers not even an ally Soldier could get.

Medic Weapons

Quick-Fix

The Quick-Fix offers, relative to the Medigun, 40% faster healing and faster Uber build, along with the ability to mirror ally explosive jumps, at the cost of 50% less Overheal and an overall less effective Uber. In 12v12, it is the dedicated 'my team is bad and we only have 1 medic' weapon due to its faster base healing and ability to act as an emergency triage when Uber has been built. In 6s, it is very difficult to output enough raw DPS to slay a Quickfix-Ubered enemy due to the general lack of Heavies and Sentries in the format, and the immunity to knockback prevents a Pyro from neutering the Uber push. The mirroring of explosive jumps allows the team to run 1 or even 2 off-classers during the mid-fight, as the Medic can rollout with the Demoman. The only real downside in the format is the -50% maximum overheal, which is not enough to justify using a different weapon. As such, the weapon is banned.

I've spent a while trying to think of ways to make the Quick-Fix not OP in 6s without decreasing its effectiveness in 12v12, and I haven't been able to come up with anything. Maybe -100% max overheal, no increased Uber build, and 50% healing rate?

Vaccinator

The Vaccinator has long been a sticking point in the balance of the game. The ability to give allies resistance to certain damage types is very powerful in the right hands. In 12v12, the Vaccinator sees most of its use as a 'the enemy team has a spinning Sniper and they won't kick it' weapon, or as a stop to a pub-stomping Soldier or Demoman. The weapon is very underwhelming on large teams where resisting 1 damage type isn't very helpful, and becomes more and more powerful as team size decreases. As such the weapon is kind of balanced in Highlander, OP in 6s, extraordinarily, ridiculously OP in 4v4, and an instant-win button in Ultiduo (2v2, 1 Soldier and 1 Medic per team). This is a problem in Competitive, but is also a problem in Casual, where teamsize isn't always guaranteed to be 12v12.

My idea is to completely rework the weapon. Throw out all existing stats and start again. The weapon relies on teamsize and team composition to be balanced, and so is fundamentally broken.

I suggest the Vaccinator be repurposed as the dedicated 'Overhealing' Medigun. Thematically, it works by giving the player's immune system more grunt to fight an infection, rather than making it better at fighting a specific infection. In general terms, the Vaccinator would function as a mildly less effective Medigun until it builds Uber. When the Medic using it builds Uber, they gain the temporary ability to grant 200% Overheal to allies. However, the Uber would be short and only suited for Overhealing two allies. To prevent players just pocketing one ally, it should have 50% less Uber build on an overhealed ally, and 90% less Uber on an ally over 142.5% health (I think that's when the stock medigun starts building Uber slower).

As for stats, these are what I recommend: -10% healing rate on damaged allies, 20% healing rate on Overhealed allies. 25% Uber build rate, but -25% Uber duration. When Ubering, the Medigun heals damaged allies at the same rate the stock Medigun does, but heals Overhealed allies at double the rate. The Medic will also gain a small amount of Overheal when using the Uber (could decay much slower?). -50% Uber build on full health or Overhealed allies, -90% Uber build on allies over 142.5% health. Allies healed over 150% health cannot be healed by anything other than a Vaccinator currently using Uber until they have dropped below 150% health.

Solemn Vow

The Solemn Vow allows you to see the health of enemies. On a co-ordinated team, this is a very powerful passive ability with no real downside, other than that it isn't the Ubersaw.

Suggestion 1: The Medic can only see enemy health when actively wielding the Solemn Vow. This means the Medic cannot heal teammates whilst doing so, and cannot quickly snipe a low-health enemy with the Crossbow.

Suggestion 2: Remove -10% swing speed, give -10 max HP. Gain a good passive upside, get hit with a bad passive downside.

Vita-Saw

Pre-Jungle Inferno, this weapon would force the enemy Medic to run it if your ally Medic was using it. It passively made you recover up to 20% Uber after death, allowing you to potentially build Uber faster than the enemy. The -10 max HP penalty hurt, and was usually enough to discourage players from using it, but it still saw some use.

However, the Jungle Inferno update reworked it, adding an 'Organ Harvesting' ability. Technically the weapon is bugged, as firing needles at an enemy then switching to the VS before they hit will produce a shower of Organs, but it's a visual error not worth banning the weapon over. In its' current state, the weapon feels like a less useful Ubersaw that could still go well if your team is fine with Kamikaze Medic-for-Medic trades. I recommend replacing the -10 max HP with -20% swing speed.

Sniper Weapons

Machina

Whilst not currently banned, the Machina is often banned, due to its ability to penetrate players. This means that a team cannot use their own bodies to prevent their Medic from being sniped.

Even though the weapon is unbanned at the moment, the reasons for banning it still exist. I recommend the following stat: Enemies hit by the Machina bolt who are not the first target hit will take 20% less damage from bodyshots. This would mean that it could do a maximum of 139 damage to secondary targets.

Darwin's Danger Shield

The Darwin's Danger Shield used to be one of the two weapons (the other being the Vita-Saw) that forced the enemy to use it if your team was using it. A DDS Sniper could tank a quick-scope headshot, thanks to an extra 25 max HP and a 20% resistance to bullets. As such the weapon was anticompetitive and was banned.

Jungle Inferno reworked the weapon to grant immunity to Afterburn, and reduce direct damage from fire by 50%. As such the weapon is no longer an instant-win in Sniper duels, and is ready to be unbanned.

Jarate

Mini-crits are a powerful ability that usually allow a player to easily defeat an opponent in competitive. The ability to Mark an Enemy for Death is even more powerful, giving mini-crits to teammates who may be in a better position to utilise them. Jarate, with its large splash radius, is capable of giving everyone on your team minicrits against everyone on the enemy team. It also makes 1v1s against enemy non-Snipers less likely to result in your embarassing death, as the large splash radius is basically impossible to dodge.

Similar to the Mad Milk, I recommend reducing the splash radius, and making the effect able to be removed via Medigun healing. To increase its supportive ability, maybe make it reduce its cooldown by 50% when extinguishing allies, or have it use a larger splash radius for deciding whether to extinguish allies or not.

Sydney Sleeper

The Sydney Sleeper has the ability to apply Jarate to multiple enemies via the Jarate explosion function. This has the same issue as Jarate.

I recommend reducing the splash radius, making it removable via Medigun healing. Maybe make it charge a little faster, or apply Jarate for longer.

Spy Weapons

Currently no Spy weapons are banned.

Cosmetics and Taunts

Interestingly, some Cosmetic items are deemed to give an unfair advantage to the wearer. Most notably, the Bombinomicon is not allowed, as the explode-on-death mechanic makes alerting your team to an enemy who has just killed you slightly easier and faster. Taunts that can be cancelled at any time are also banned, as they give the user the ability to enter 3rd person and leave it at will.

Cosmetic bans could be a hard sell, but simply banning cosmetics that produce sound or particle effects should do the trick. Even more extreme, Valve could ban all non-head cosmetics from competitive. Taunt bans would be easy, just disable partner/group taunts outside of setup time, or even ban all non-weapon-specific taunts.

To conclude: Valve has made huge strides in closing the rift between casual and competitive, but there are still several issues that need to be addressed prior to the release of the upcoming reboot to their official competitive mode.