just keep playing the game

literally why even post?

In terms of configs mastercomfig is probably the best for boosting fps. It's a bit of an annoyance but it's definitely worth it.
Jump maps are good for practicing basic rocket jumping mechanics. MGE is good for practicing your raw aim and movement, as well as soapDM servers. Both can be found in the servers tab of tftv.
Hardware wise, your mouse can be any decent quality optical sensor mouse. r/mousereview is a good subreddit with a lot of recommendations for different hand sizes.PC should be powerful enough to run the game at a relatively high frame-rate, ideally 100+ fps in a full blown mid. You can probably budget one for about 500-700 dollars USD, and r/BuildaPC is a good sub for getting help. Keyboard doesn't matter too much, just something appropriate for the size of your desk, and is functional.

Use 5cm/360 and play spire for 8 hours a day

watch demos/streams of higher level soldiers and think about why theyre doing what theyre doing

ive noticed in my play that I don't simply wait to reload before jumping/fighting. Also make sure you don't cancel a reload prematurely by jumping too soon.
as an aim exercise, try waiting a bit before actual clicking mouse1 when fighting scouts. edging like this improved my aim a bit
dont telegraph your flight path/lz so easily. jump when you have options when you land. also ctapping helps a lot with this
I hope these arent obvious or platitudes

blaze's decision making/timing is immaculate u can def learn a lot from watching him
seagull had a few demo reviews on youtube which were pretty good albeit a much different meta of the game

1).
hardware:
while it is true that having a decent pc that can run tf2 smoothly is really helpful its not really all that necessary to get decent at the game. tf2 is optimized like ass, so there arent many people who can get good fps on every map.
dont let a bad pc hold you back from playing the game
keyboard:
doesnt matter as long as the keys work
mouse:
a decent mouse will deffo somewhat help you aim (look up rocketjumpninja on yt) but it wont magically make you aim good
sens:
doesnt technically matter but i think the standard sens of 3 ingame and 800 dpi that everyone and their dog uses is probably best. I have like 26cm/360 and it makes me have to flick like a motherfucker all the time. Not optimal for soldier class gameplay
2)
config:
get masterconfig
3)
practice:
this is honestly a great opportunity for you to figure out how you learn in general. You can take a lot away from how you see yourself improving the most in tf2. I realized i learn best from having to explain shit myself by trying to get better in tf2 and that helped me a tonne in school aswell.
mge:
mge is good for learning how to shoot rockets and get a basic understanding of how combat works
dm:
dm simulates a real game better than mge does, but it can still lead to bad habits like mge can. I ultimately find it more usefull than mge because it lets you practice ur aim on a whole middle instead of like 2 places on a tiny mge map
jumping:
go learn to jump good
being able to do all the rollouts is essential and so is being able to do some more advanced skip jumps
demos:
watch stvs of you+your team doing stuff and realize what your faults are, then go watch an invite/prem demo of someone who knows what theyre doing and look for those things
remember that having the theoretical knowledge wont be enough, being able to properly apply it is what matters. Theres a reason i can sit as a caster who has never played above div2 and yell at prem teams for being bad.
4)
jumping:
i never enjoyed jumping on its own much so i pretty much stopped when i figured out how to do the process rollout
this is probably the biggest thing im missing and it would help me out a tonne if i bothered to learn how to ctap etc
go learn jumping. there are laods of guides out there and people who know more than me
5)
aim:
see 3
watch wars aim theroy video if ur bored

These are honestly the best resources for playing soldier that exist to this day. Game was played very differently then but the demo reviews pretty much teach u fundamentals and how u should be thinking which is way more valuable than stuff thats specific to a particular era.

someone once told me that the best soldiers know when to be a lil bitch. honestly helped me a lot. at any moment in a fight, you can choose to shoot a rocket at an enemy, or to shoot a rocket at your feet and bitch out. running away is not a bad thing. it is actually a positive if people try to chase you and get cleaned up by your team, or are just wasting time and are out of position. always consider whether you should be taking a fight or bitching out.

mind giving me the links to those?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaFnEJ5tWlK0TO5PWHqr8Hw/videos?view=0&sort=da&flow=grid all of the early videos pre-overwatch

the b4nny pocket POV from iseries is a pretty good one

Really wish there was more Invite/Prem roamer content on youtube. I've rewatched Seagull's demo reviews sooo many times, it's great.

play MGE

If you wanna work on the little things and just 1v1 in general, mge. I prefer death match more, but above both of these I would say practicing jump maps and getting into bball will really help you improve faster. You can also play ultiduo or get with your teammates and play the 2v2 mge servers. But overall the best way to improve is just real experience, actual pugs, scrims and matches and then going over your demos with your team or mentor.

Custom crosshairs for different slots is actually amazing.

I love turning my launchers on and off, but always want my secondary on (unless gunboats ofc), and melee on as well.

https://www.teamfortress.tv/50543/vtf-crosshair-pack-2

using VTF and the cfg.tf link, customize everything. great stuff, actually helps more than you would think.

yeah im sure using a custom crosshair is going to make you better at soldier lol

I can't help with hardware or configs but some other stuff maybe.

Strictly watching demo's or video's of high level soldiers is generally not what I would recommend at your level of play. Sure it is awesome to watch guys like blaze and seagull make soldier seem easy and do some fantastic things but considering your level, it doesn't help you advance right now IMO. Once you reach a bit higher level of play, those videos will be much more helpful.
Many times in those videos, there are specific reasons why soldiers on those high level teams do what they do and most are likely related to mumble comm's that you don't always hear in the video or the players experience is guiding his actions and he is doing shit automatically. Additionally, playing on a team like that means they trust their teammates to be playing properly and be able to support the action the solider is trying to perform. At anything below invite, you don't find that coordination often so its going to be difficult to emulate right now without the team around you being good enough.

My suggestion would be to work on the bare basics at this point:

--Movement (not just jumping around mindlessly like most soldiers. Work on surfing and strafing as well. Improving your movement is probably the one skill you can increase the most rapidly with just individual practice on your own server. When you jump, are you landing on the flat ground? Try to do jumps that allow you to land on an object instead, like a create or a ledge. Sometimes landing on the enemy is good but often times you should look to land on places that offer you height advantage or make you a more difficult target to hit. Just about every jump you do should have a purpose behind it, be it a better position, a good looking spot to avoid being seen, a safe place to ask for an arrow from your medic, etc, etc. You shouldn't jump around near the enemy without a clear indication of what you intend to do or you risk being mulched up by scouts and spam. Proper movement and control will improve your soldier play significantly)

--Aim (MGE is your friend when you use it properly. Don't play MGE to win. It means nothing to get 20 frags before the other guy. Instead, use it as target practice and start slow. Challenge yourself to try and not miss a single rocket. Fire slowly and make every rocket count. Increase speed gradually as you get your timing and control down. This will benefit you in matches because as you jump in and out of combat, you will have 1-2 rockets and you need to make them count. Control your aim and hit your shots. This skill takes time and practice in match environments so don't expect this one to be quick.)
(IMO, DM is shit for learning to get better. DM is simply raw action that can help you warm-up before scrims but doesn't teach you jack shit. You don't learn to mange your rockets, your health and in most cases your positioning which I think is the most vital for soldiers. I suppose it can possibly help your aim but I believe there are better ways to spend your time)

--Experience (You need to play in match/scrim environments to get the proper experience but there are things you can do on your own to help here as well. You said you have been playing for a while so I assume you know all the relevant maps inside and out? If not, set aside time and learn each map. Look for choke points and the best spam angles for your rockets. High ground should be your life as soldier, so seek out the best perch and think about what you can and can't do from any given position. Know every ammo and health pack location along with every spawn location. You should practice jumps from each spawn location to get back into a team fight as quickly and efficiently as possible. Meaning, when you respawn and have to catch-up to your team, it is often best to jump from healthpack to healthpack until you are back into the fight so that your medic does not need to waste time and heal you. Also work on not taking fall damage from jumps unless necessary or unavoidable. Practice those non-vertical jumps for max distance. Do this for every single map and you should notice improvement in your speed)

Lastly, it sucks to say but often times the team you choose can stifle your progression as well. You seem to have a drive to improve and actually work so try your best to find a team with like minded players so you can learn and help each other. Avoid toxic assholes and teams with multiple anime avatar's as best you can but that might be easier said than done. good luck

- posting seagull link again in case anyone hasn't seen them: playlist
- nuze's video on Seagull is really good if you haven't seen it (link
- b4nny has a few demo reviews of blaze (metalworks, product, badlands) which were really good, as well as some of shiki which are solid (process, gullywash)
- Slin's videos are pretty good too, he did demo reviews of aim, rolling, rando, lansky, and tagg. bonus video that I haven't watched
- Boink/techno/rando did some drunk demo reviews mad long ago, probably not as helpful but entertaining nonetheless (yankee, shlaner).
- Techno did some fundamentals of roamer which still hold up (double soldier bomb/medic mindgames for sure): counting rockets, midfights overview, hiding spots, hiding spots 2, midfights 2, medic mindgames, double soldier aggression
- jayhyunpae used to have a video with more up to date hiding spots but I guess he took it down. Has one demo review of pyxelize playing soldier though (haven't watched myself): link
- saam did a review of kryptonite back when he was in IM link
- YouMustMike was a scout/medic primarily but did a LOT of demo reviews, many good soldier ones if you dig through (link)
- Marxist had some solid videos more geared towards beginners such as the 10 precepts of pocket (WAY old now but some of the stuff is still relevant).

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https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/160482990345027584/726305195037950022/Mumble-2020-06-26-221719.jpg

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK3mIVV3sFI

1. I wouldn't really recommend using casual to warm up because it's not as intensive as something like mge, dm or even bot maps, that said small fast-paced maps like harvest, viaduct, nucleus would be my go to if I were going to use casual for that (basically small koth maps)
2. I recently came across some of FrickMyNick's map reviews which I thought were pretty nice: https://www.twitch.tv/frickmynick/videos?filter=archives&sort=time You won't be able to find a map review online for every single map in the pool though unfortunately
3. This question is kind of impossible to answer because everyone means something different by the word "good" and there also isn't a set amount of time you need to put in to get to a certain level at soldier, the time you need to put in will vary wildly depending on how efficient your practice is, previous experience in fps games, natural talent and a bunch of other factors.
4. From what I've seen aim trainers will definitely help with mouse control in tf2, however for soldier in particular they are probably not the best way of practicing since the biggest element of projectile aim is predicting the movement of real players.

Holy shit, thanks a lot Bear.

And please upload more Chaos/Jumper main roamer :D