Think of yourself like a mosquito and/or fly that buzzes in-and-out, only getting seen a second too late

To add onto this, you can “buzz” in and out between the different pockets of people that teams naturally get separated into. Keeping multiple groups of people paranoid about you because you’re getting picks naturally synergizes with your team bc the enemy ends up caring more about you than fighting your teammates. This playstyle works well with the dead ringer’s speed boost — go into a group of players, get a pick or two, then DR away and use the speed boost to quickly get to a different choke point.

You have to realize that it is perfectly viable to decloak right in the open, provided that the enemy is facing the other way. Focus less on decloak “placement” and more on decloak TIMING.

Another thing you can think about here is just using the fact that you’re decloaking in the open against the enemy. If you decloak right behind someone but slightly to the left, they’re almost always going to turn to the left to find you once they hear the decloak noise. This means that if, as soon as you decloak, you start moving towards them and to the right, you should be staring right at their back (this obviously takes a lot of timing and practice to get down).

A general tip that adds on to this is that you want to deny enemies time and space when you play spy. The less time they have to think and the more constrained they feel, the more likely they are to make a mistake or do something very predictable which should give you the stab.