Try playing with the Shortstop? It helps you practice aiming for center mass with the tighter spread, and the weaker individual shots force you to be more accurate and hit more of them. Plus it has a faster fire rate, which adds another level of difficulty. It's like playing jump maps as Soldier: if you can do hard mode, normal mode seems easy in comparison.

mge/dm all day as scout. hit a/d really fast.

Improve in a way that isn't stressful but fun. I tend to only DM or MGE for ~15 minutes at a time because I get frustrated easily, then get out of my zone. And then I start to rage and do even worse. Try to find a fun way to improve. For example, MGE with a friend of the same skill level, join a pug group, do some tf2mixes with friends, etc, etc. When you're having fun you tend to warm up faster and stay warmed up longer because you are focusing on having fun, not how good/bad your aim is. You can also do things like jump, which helps me with my twitching and gets me used to my sensitivity, which translate to my scout game. Reviewing demos is another stress-free way to improve. Just make sure you're always having fun and not raging at yourself.

I know that one of my bad habits is messing up my shots when I'm right behind a medic and he doesnt know I'm there because I have this subconscious thing in my brain that tells me that i must be spamming ADADADADAD at all times no matter what. I think that habit comes from playing a ton of DM where there is always somebody shooting at you. Basically, make sure that you just focus on aiming when you know that nobody is looking at you so you don't miss the easy shots.

use the same mouse, mousepad, monitor, and sensitivity as some of the top scouts and you'll be kicking ass in no time.

Lately for me, it's been more about managing my character's body in the context of a fight. If I can take less damage at all times, I can just rely on my aim as much as possible to get big damage. Playing Scout v Soldier in mge will teach you how to move in situations like this where minimizing damage is key. Like others have said, get that tracking down, stick like glue to their character and only take your shots when necessary. Emptying your clip fast and getting 5 damage out isn't effective. Use your pistol only if you know you're going to get the kill with it quickly. You don't want to run around chasing scouts with your pistol doing 8 damage all the time when they're at like 100. Pistol's good for harassing people at distances and it's not too hard to get the aiming down with practice. Really, as others have said, keep playing and you figure everything out eventually. You just have to work/try/practice.

play this before every big match

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB2foU_wlq0

Animals with Guns respresent :p

Some tips that have changed my scout game massively for the better:

- Point and click, don't hold down M1 trying to flickshot with the fire rate of the scatter.
- Let them come into your xhair rather than moving your xhair to them (scout v scout at least)
- Stay very calm. Do not get tense or flick your mouse hoping for miracle shots, just stay focused and play crisply.
- Use movement to aim. This is pretty simple, but strafing into your shots is more reliable than flicking to them.

So if I'm playing scout against you and never strafe directly in front of you, you'll never hit me.

Try out new aiming styles. And I don't just mean twitch vs tracking vs sliding or whatever, I mean find little gimmicks that other players use and see if you can go anywhere with them. I remember this one frag clip of Carnage where he was airstrafing into some of his shots, and it got burned into my head so much that I started doing it myself by reflex, and it's a lot better than the twitching I do a lot. Just an example.

120hz monitor.

Trust me, it's a must.

Eh. Movement to aim can be more reliable, but at the same time it's better to have aim separate from movement somewhat, so you can aim while you are dodging. That's something that separates good scouts from amazing scouts. And letting the scout run into your crosshair is somewhat reliable, but it can also lead to bad habits. I think being able to track and flick from tracking gives your opponent less control over your aim and let you move freely compared to aiming through your movement, if more difficult and less consistent in getting meatshots.

Are you sure that's the right order?
I might be doing something wrong

He forgot "seduce the Scattergun."

name your scattergun a pro scout reference.

shoot people who aren't looking at you. 2ez.

For some reason, the strafing patterns of someone trying to dodge someone else's shots can get surprisingly unpredictable. Good thing is they aren't looking at you so you can go for the surprise bodyblock sometimes.

Do not do crazy 360 dodges while ubered.

Im sry ;_;

relax and take your time

yz50/shrugger/omar are the ones I was thinking of

#44, is it really that big of a deal? I'm honestly just curious.

As for the topic, while I'm no good scout by any means, I find that confidence goes a long way in you hitting your shots. I guess practice is the biggest factor in establishing that confidence, but unless you try to adapt that mindset, you won't achieve it as easily. Always remember that it's just a game.

scattergun like water
be the watt
when water go into a teapot, it become da teapot
when water go into a cup, it become da bowl
be like wata, my friend

Scout v scout on a 120hz compared to a 60hz monitor is a night and day difference. When I switched to 120hz i immediately noticed a difference. It's not as important for other classes, but it's still very helpful.

you're also playing in a frag video with 100+hz, which is cool

I've noticed I'm fairly consistent aiming at still objects, but I suck at hitting scouts. I would suggest focusing on prediction. Try actually thinking about where they are going to be and maybe it will become second nature. I haven't been decent at scout in a long time so I'm not sure this is good advice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlCRfTmBSGs