I agree that most good scouts do the majority of their aiming by trying to keep their crosshair close to the enemy and doing little flicks right before they shoot but being able to flick aim really well is still really helpful because it allows you to airstrafe and still hit shots at the same time. I'm not sure exactly why, but it seems like scouts that try to track as much possible are easier to hit even if you're a scout yourself. A couple things I notice myself doing sometimes that really fuck me up are jumping and shooting at the exact same time and doing little micro flicks the moment I click even though I know my crosshair is already on the enemy.. Also, I think some people have a tendency to squeeze their hand when they click during tense fights which can move their mouse unintentionally, so make sure your index finger is moving in an isolated fashion.

tbh i pick up bad habits trying to imitate others people's style, the best way to aim is to experiment for yourself, don't try copying someone else's style.

You can have mongo eu soldier aim or incredible youmustmike/cookye/quad tracking and have good aim on Scout. It doesn't matter how you aim any weapon as long as you hit your shots.

Yeah fair enough but I did state it isn't any scientific exact number, I just gave a direction if you want to purely track from my own experiences, if tracking is what you feel most comfy with, I was unclear about this sorry.
It's somewhat obvious that there's a point where a fast sens will limit the capability to purely track precisely at mid/long range and where a too slow sens will limit your ability to keep track in close range. I definitely meant to say this if you want to purely track.

I wrote my posts in a hurry and was a bit disrespectful and unclear, sorry about that. I guess we can agree that players should choose a sens/way of aiming they feel comfy with, be it pure tracking, flicking or the combination of both.

not true for everyone. when i watched scouts who aimed relatively smoothly, like clock or quad, for example, and tried to apply it to my play, it definitely helped me. i wouldn't put it as "copying" though, as it's more learning to aim in different ways and then seeing what you like or what works.

if you want to improve your tracking:

map tr_newbots
host_timescale 2

tracking real players will be a piece of cake after that

the best way to practice aim is to MGE

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Imo it depends on your playstyle. If you take a look at how starkie plays, he usually keeps his distance and goes for sure shots, while clockwork would run in, strafe around and dodge a lot, which made him flick when in those situations. But this is a situation in which they are looked at, if you are not looked at, you are not shot at, you should track for sure, its the best and most consistant way. Your sens pretty much decides what playstyle you should use, or rather determins what you are capable of(you need fast sens to dodge around a lot, that is around 28cm, dont need anything faster). So, if you want to play balls deep style, you have to practice flicks aswell, but tracking should be your main style of aim. If you want to play smart and clean, you can go for slow sens and hit those mid range meatshots, because tracking mid range with like 50 cm is really easy. I hadnt seen flicking only god like scout to this day, but I hadnt been around for that long, so idk. For me, I feel like you need to track almost all the time, going for that mini flicks if needed, but also going for that big ass flicks when doing crazy strafes and dodging.

no worries my man, i was in a bit of a mood yesterday anyways

He most definitely has played tf2 within 4 months

flicking and tracking are just 2 ways of aiming and should be applied to your playstyle. cookye, quad and harry hook all had really good tracking, zebbo, nukkye and clockwork all had pretty flicky aim. they were all at the top in terms of aim when they played even tho they aimed different from one another
there is no, one way of aiming that fits all, when you develop a playstyle you develop a aiming style with it

Well that's just general tracking, I was talking about people with weird aim styles, and then a new player trying to copy that aim style without realizing that it took years for that player to aim the way he does. It's like seeing a person flick rocket jumping and trying to copy it without realizing that they didn't start out flicking.

sometimes a way to hit stuff instead of tracking is to purposely aim away from the target and then flick on to them because tracking is too hard :-(
it's a bit nutty but just a suggestion

That works but occasionally if you're already on the target you might flick away since you've developed a habit of flicking

If you want to force yourself to track on scout increase your sens. I recently started playing with ingame 2.5 on scout vs my normal 1.7 on soldier and i have to track because when i flick i almost do a 180. Its helping me chill with flicking nonstop on soldier when i switch back too

The best answer is use what works for you. If you land more shots tracking, then use it more. If you land more shots flicking, use that more. But if you find the other person is hitting shots faster or more efficiently even though you're good with one aiming style, try to mix them both or switch between them.

Cheeky bump.

Is tracking mainly done with arm aiming or do scouts who wrist aim also predominantly track? I mean the really close kind of tracking like Puoskari's.

Maybe useful if people who predominantly track say whether they wrist or arm aim. As far as I know, higher sens players tend to wrist aim and lower sens use arm. A lot of the scouts who stream tend to have sens above 12 inches/30cm and so I'd guess they're more likely to arm aim. I know B4nny has a fast sens and he's quite flicky with his aim rather than being a strong tracker, so I wondered if high sens scouts can also track very closely.

I guess intuitively you'd guess that arm aiming is best for tracking because using your entire aim allows you to keep a steady base for smooth tracking, whereas wrist aim seems better for quick response flicks.

I always felt like the better my tracking was, the less I had to worry about how good my flicking was. It makes sense, the closer they are to your crosshair, the less you need to flick.

Given scout v scout movement, I don't think it's reasonable to say flicks aren't the way to go though.

I think that with a higher sens you're going to track with your wrist, but for me personally my sens was too high and I would choke easily with it. I noticed I track with my arm way more with a lower sens and it felt more comfortable for me. On the other hand, for example Sheep who was considered the best tracker/sniper in the game a while back played with 24cm/360, iirc.

You shouldn't really worry about whether you aim with your wrist or arm, as I guess it'll come naturally which ever is going to work out for you the best for tracking. Now even though I don't like to give exact numbers since everyone should have a sens of their own that they're comfortable with, I can give a slight direction.

In my experience if you want to have a pure track you likely want sens that's roughly around ~18-45cm/360. The logic behind this is that when you have too high sens, you can track in close range just fine but you will struggle tracking in longer range & the opposite goes for too low sens, eventually it will limit how effortlessly you can track in close range.

But again you shouldn't take these numbers too literally and rather just find out what feels the most comfortable for you and practice. The lower end is just an assumption, as well as the higher end, as I only have experience tracking with sensitivities between 24-36.7cm/360. Hope this cleared something up.

Everyone sums up "tracking" by keeping the crosshair on your target as much as possible. But one thing I haven't seen anybody mention, is the more optimal, more stable way to do it. Wether you should look at your target and try to follow him with your crosshair or should you look at your crosshair and try to chase the opponent with it.
And even then, should you activly try to predict the opponent's movement or clear your mind about all that and just react to the moment. If the latter is the more stable way to go with, what's the best practice for reaction time and how to reduce that delay you may have for "sudden moves" and how to keep up with those...
And should you even think about these stuff or let your brain automaticly do it for you.

P.s: This post can be considered a series of questions about tracking which I personaly struggle with.

you dont need to look at your crosshair. it doesnt move. follow the player.

Thank you.

Whilst I have been changing sens a lot to find one I like, I'm playing mostly on 33.3cm, but I like to wrist aim. I just wondered if my sens was a bit low to use pure tracking with my wrist?

If so, I guess I could use a higher sens and keep using my wrist, or keep this one and start using my arm more.
Currently I feel like i am more precise with a lower sens but moving around and turning with my wrist feels a lot nicer with a higher sens, so that's why I am changing a lot and trying to get the balance.

One thing to keep in mind with all this tracking vs flicking and wrist vs is arm is that using your wrist is much more likely to lead to physical issues like rsi and carpal tunnel. Not saying you can't use your wrist, b4nny uses pretty much only his wrist, plays way more tf2 than most people and is able to manage it through stretches and whatever other methods. But if you are going to use your wrist please be careful.

If you're able to circle a player in meatshot-range and keep the crosshair effortlessly on him, then your sens most likely is fine. Other than that with a sens that low-ish you indeed might want to consider trying to use your arm or use slightly faster sens that you can track well with.
Or simply, if for example someone circles you, are you able to still keep the crosshair on him or do you do you easily get messed if someone does that?
Keep in mind this is if you want to obtain pure tracking, if you still can aim just fine with that sens while wrist aiming, you should stick to it and improve imo.