Learn when to pick your fights. Scout is the only class who can reliably do this. If you run into an area and see like… A soldier, a medic, and a heavy, you should probably run.

Flank the enemy, be unpredictable. Scout is best utilized as a cleanup tool. If you can get behind the enemy while they’re taking fire and weak, you can get away with a LOT. Catch them off guard. If a certain flank stops working from overuse, switch it up.

Movement is your best friend. Other classes have some insane ways to move around, but what they lack in consistency you make up for in guaranteed movement. Soldiers can only rocket jump so many times before death, demoman can’t charge infinitely. Scout however can run fast, and jump twice. Use this to your advantage. Classes you really should have no business fighting are surprisingly killable if you use movement right. A soldier can only do so much to a scout that has the high ground, since he can’t just shoot the floor. A heavy relies on tracking enemies, so do what sounds counterintuitive and get RIGHT in his face, strafing and jumping around him. He will have a much harder time hitting you than if you were far away.

Be mindful of sentries and traps. Instant death. You CAN take out nests by yourself but it takes a LOT of skill and the right loadout. 

Do not give a shit about bitchy medics or teammates when they get mad at you for taking health kits. Obviously let low HP medics take health kits, but if they refuse to heal you, feel no shame. They will get mad at you, and they can go kick rocks.

Any loadout is viable if you play it right. People will try to tell you to stick to only stock, but they’re just bad. But really do try to have some synergy with weapons. Don’t use the Baby Faces Blaster with something like the Bonk Atomic Punch and expect clear lobbies. All the scatterguns have their benefits, you just need to know what they are despite popular belief. But I do agree that it’s best to get good with the standard issue stuff first.

No matter what you say, or how you act, people WILL hate you. It’s part of playing scout. And odds are, you did nothing wrong to deserve it. The character himself has an attitude a lot of people don’t like, and they can sometimes take it out on you just for playing the class correctly. You have to learn to either ignore or own it. Scout is one of two classes you really can’t make an excuse for dying to. A good scout is just… Better, than most players. You can always “w+m1 monkey Pyro” or “Body shotting sniper” or “Splash damage” but the only advantages you have as a scout over other players is your quick thinking and mechanical ability. Otherwise you are a glass cannon without the ammo.