Mostly just practice all day long, I have found but keeping focused on the other scouts' positions and having your crosshair in relevant places as you enter an area can give you the early advantage in a fight.

mge

MGE helps with aim, but in an actual game it's all about picking your fights. If you can successfully avoid 1v1 scout situations where you know the opponent is at fairly higher health, you can drastically improve your survivability and K/D ratio. Having one scout with a low amount of deaths means your team will have a reliable flank that will be able to better deny jumpers/scouts on your medic because you will be alive and able to take that roll.

DM of course. But unless you have exceptional DM you should generally avoid taking any 1v1s. If I see a scout running at me I'm usually going to run away. I don't usually take 1v1s unless I know for a fact I have advantage in some way, be it health, numbers, or positioning.

I know that's not what you were asking, but if you're playing right, you'll find yourself in very few 1v1s. Aim is like the least important part of the game.

I should have mentioned that I understand that I shouldn't be in 1v1s as much as possible. I listed it as an example situation because it still happens and it's what I thought of as a time where my scout vs scout DM should be good enough to either a) get the pick or b) hold my own well enough to get out of it.

I change my sensitivity all the time and doesn't really bother me.
When I use a really low sens I've noticed that it's as simple as two-shotting scouts and win the majority of 1v1's you encounter as long as your aggressive and hit your shots.

when using a higher sens I tend to get fanciful with flick shots and too much dodging and lose way more 1v1's.

What I learned - don't over think scout battles and staying aggressive and hitting the meat is more important than dodging it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svCmXhYxMGc#t=1m30s

Seen it quite a few times. Maybe the problem is that I think too hard about not dying and getting the frag rather than just aiming better.

I've gained consistency in hitting scouts by just practicing my tracking. Force yourself to aim at your enemies by tracking and resist the tendency to flick. Also having a high, stable framerate and 120hz helps, a lot more than I wish it did.

I would disagree. That's a generalization that one scout needs less deaths than the other. I agree with the first part of your post.

As I've said previously, it's about actually being the most effective you can be in the given situation. If you start thinking about 'having low deaths', a lot of the time you will pass up exploiting little advantages that could turn into big advantages if you just held w instead of s. Yes, you(or both scouts) need to be aware of incoming aggressive players and shut them down immediately, but you don't want to be sitting around not doing much. You want to be active.

There's no real trick to scout v scout - just shoot the bad man better. Also, the quicker you end the duel - the quicker you assist your team in whatever fight/action that may be taking place.

Though to be fair, a lot of the time it is pretty bad to be two scouts down (especially if they didn't accomplish anything).

EDIT: On a side note, please don't use the "null movement script" (if you do) as a general tip.

It's all about relative positioning and timing. If you know your relative health is relatively lower, back out and get a healthkit/heals/buff and repush. If not, keep your crosshair on him at all times and keep hitting him until he's dead. Don't take a shot you're not going to make. Playing scout is a bit like being at the batter's box. A truly good scout is going to get the kill no matter what because he knows he can. Backing up what deathanchor said: DON'T DIE: You can't kill anyone if your dead and you can't cap a point if you're dead which is literally your whole job for the team. The cap point of team fortress 2 is LITERALLY the point of the game. A low death number and good caps + assists makes a great scout.

A good balance between tricky movement (not to much tricky movement where it affects how well you can aim) and a balance between predicting where the other scout will go and anticipating where they will end up while basing your movement on theirs usually helps.

The best bit of advice I found for 1v1ing scouts was in clockworks mge video thing where he said you want to move in the opposite direction the other scout is moving when your DMing, him was a real good peice of advice.

Yeah, going off of dopewolf: you're always going to want to be in the scout's blind spot. Try and aim for their side/back/midsection. A good scout will always be headed in a direction that's just a little bit ahead or in the opposite direction of where you think he should be. Scouts run super quick and it's pretty easy to lose sight of them. Just remember: NEVER DOUBLE JUMP. Any good scout knows the double jump pattern by heart and can track you to right where you're going to land. Once you commit yourself to that second double jump, it's pretty easy to see where you're going.

I always felt that this really limits your aim and makes you too dependent on how the other scout is moving. I think people over analyze this because it's basically just who can hit shots better combined with who had better health/buff.

Depends on what props are around, your proximity to the opponent, and how well you can strafe.

OP, play more MGE. It will make you more comfortable in 1v1 scenarios. Just make sure you don't take it too seriously.

yes, clockwork is actually shit

the mirror strafing clockwork talks about does help your aim but abuse of one type of movement makes you predictable and easier to hit. you gotta mix it up and hit that meat no matter how you or your opponent moves. A little patience while aiming could go a long way.

what i did to get better was look at me playing mge (yes ,i recorded some demos of me playing mge) and then i figured out what kind of shots i was missing
i think its better to take 1 second to wait for an easier shot than just spamming m1 as fast as the scatter allows you

Mix up your strafes, have different types of movement so you can switch it up if you think you're getting read

the best scouts have aim completely unaffected by their movement. I think the best way to get good at scout v scout is to focus on being unpredictable. When you first start spamming WASD at an invite level your aim is going to suffer but you will eventually get over it and have better aim than you did before, while also being harder to hit.

also, double jumping is actually a pretty good thing to do if you need to reload. It can be really hard to hit a scout that's crouching, airstrafing, and twirling around in the air.

one thing you should keep in mind is choosing the distance of the fight based on health. If you have more health than the other person than you should try and keep your distance. Lets say that you have 125hp and he has 50hp. If you keep your distance from him he is going to have to hit perfect shots to 2/3 shot you, while you can just hit crappy shots and still kill him. If you have way less health than the opposing scout then you will want to have a close range fight so that you will have a higher chance of 2 shotting him, while hoping that he misses a couple shots. Obviously you wouldn't want to fight anybody when you have less health but there are situations where you have to, like last points.

Some people may not agree with all of these, but here are some points I feel are worth keeping in mind:

1. don't seek out 1v1s unless you are certain you have a distinct advantage (read: he doesn't see you or you know he's weak)
2. a mid-range scout vs scout fight (30-40 damage per shot) will typically go in favor of the scout who had more health at the start of the fight. if you don't have great faith in your up-close scout vs scout aim and you've got a nice buff while the enemy scout does not, a mid-range fight is probably your best bet.
3. a point-blank scout vs scout fight negates the enemy scout's buff. if the enemy's at 185 and you're at 125, two close range near-perfect shots will kill either of you. if you must fight, get in close and make your shots count.
4. don't always fire as quickly as possible. it's much easier to juke someone who is doing this. take shots when your crosshair is over the enemy; whether that's from you aiming or them crossing in front of it.
5. if you notice someone's firing pattern, use your movement to throw them off.
6. pay attention to the enemy's accuracy. do they seem to have more trouble hitting you when you strafe in one direction in a circle around them? does that type of movement seem to help their aiming style? do they have more trouble keeping up with you when you stutter-step constantly?
7. do you know the enemy? does he or she use a particularly low or high sensitivity? exploit your knowledge of the enemy.

I disagree with a few of the other suggestions in this thread.

Tracking does help in many cases, but if you pretend flicking doesn't exist and don't familiarize yourself with it, you're taking away a very valuable tool.

What? This is pretty flawed logic... If a scout is headed in the opposite direction of where you think he should be, then you didn't predict him correctly. This cannot be attributed blanketly to a statement such as yours.

Again, this is nonsensical. The scout has the ability to jump while already airborne. To blanketly disregard this ability is merely limiting yourself. What if you are in close quarters and you know the enemy scout you're fighting uses a sensitivity that equates to 30" per 360? Jumping over his head so you're facing his back can certainly be an advantage in that fight. Even jumping over him repeatedly would give you an advantage in this scenario.

??? ???
Air-strafing is involved here. Your second jump does not always yield the same trajectory unless you do not alter it. Look at shrugger's movement for an example of what I mean.

Thanks for the help, dudes. I'll put this advice to work as best as I can.

MGE

w o t

I never said that, I just think it isn't the foolproof plan to have when you're actually playing, there are many situations where you can't play mirror mirror on the wall with the other scout aiming at you.

I +fwd scout v scout in MGE for like an hour a day and just try to kill them in three shots or less. helped me so far. Ofc while doing movement shit.

120_hz, and i dont mean a 120hz monitor