After playing Casual and MvM for many years, I have realized that many people sadly do not know how to open the scoreboard and gather information about their and others' performance, despite it being a crucial and a very important HUD feature of not just TF2, but all the other multiplayer games out there.

In this guide (a serious and informative one I have decided to make, not intended to be one of those usual list-polluting troll guides like "How to jump", "How to play with the obese class" and "How to become invisible with the french man"), I will show you how to open the scoreboard and what you can find in this section, hoping that this knowledge will exponentially increment worldwide, for a better future.

The Tab button, as Wikipedia says:

"(abbreviation of tabulator key or tabular key) on a keyboard is used to advance the cursor to the next tab stop."

Since we are not talking about Microsoft Word or whatever Office application, in this guide I won't show you how the Tab button is used for text purposes, but just for a very simple function present in TF2: make the scoreboard appear.

The Tab button on your keyboard looks like this:


Note that not all the keyboards have the button with "Tab" shown on it; so, it is useful to remember that you can always find it at the left of the Q key and on top of the Caps Lock key, in 99% of the keyboards.

In TF2, the Tab button is, by default, the binded key to make the scoreboard appear on your screen, as long as you keep it pressed; when you stop pressing it, the board will disappear.

There is, however, something else to point out: depending on which gamemode you are playing, the scoreboard will have a different appearance; that's why I have decided to split the showcase into 2 different sections.

Let's take a look at them:

In the core gamemode of TF2 (PvP), either you are playing a Casual match or in your favourite Community server, the scoreboard is represented like this:

(Credit: TheLizardMan)

It is divided into 3 major parts: 2 columns and 1 bottom section.
The columns show the players in the BLU and RED team and the respective score plus the list of the players for both teams.
For every player you can see (from left to right):

-an icon showing their badge level, including the achieved tier (you need to check the effective level/tier number from other sources like the TF2 Wiki because the game does not show them directly)

-the avatar and the name of the player

-an eventual number, followed by an arrow pointing to the right, showing the current killstreak counter of that person
-eventual number of dominations that player has made (medal icon with a number)

-an eventual icon that shows if that player is currently dominating you (spiky icon with the 2 boxing gloves)
or an icon indicating that you are currently dominating that player (a white target with a red center)

-the score of that player

-the class that player is using (you can modify the class icon appearance via Advanced Options, then HUD Options)

-the ping of that player (you can either choose to show the latency number or the vertical, coloured lines via Advanced Options, then HUD Options)

The bottom section shows the server location, the map name and, most importantly, the data about your performance made in the current match including:

-kills you have made

-how many times you have died

-healing done

-backstabs (if you played as a spy)

-headshots

-overall damage
Etcetera.

A very important feature you may want to know, is the possibility to activate the cursor input on the scoreboard: you can find this option in the Advanced ones and then HUD Option. With this, you can also see other player's stats.

Why the scoreboard can be very useful here? For understanding how your team is composed (try to pick a different class instead of being the 5th sniper or the 7th spy), for spotting who is performing better than others and also for spotting eventual cheaters by looking at their suspicious performances and at the avatar so you can start a votekick on the correct player (unless it's one of those bots that steal profile pictures from a player in your lobby, other than his/her username).

BE AWARE: an installed custom HUD can modify the usual structure of the scoreboard, changing the position of the data.

In Mann Vs Machine, the scoreboard has a different form:


(Credit: itsgalf's "MvM: Scout - More than just a support Class" guide)

The scoreboard has 4 main sections: an upper section, the players section, the credits section and the personal performance section.

The upper section shows the wave number and the composition of the current one with a cyan bar that decreases with the progress made on the current wave; on the left, you can see the server data, while on the right you see the difficulty of the mission you are playing

The players section is VERY important, as it shows the complete performance of all the players present in the lobby; from left to right you can see:

-the player's avatar and name

- the class that player is playing

-the tour number that player has in the tour (meaning, Mecha Engine, Steel Trap...) you are currently playing (you may think that high tour count = a lot of experience and skill in MvM, but this is not always the case, as many high tourers may not have developed much skill in the course in their MvM career)

-the score of that player

-the damage that player has done to the robots from the beginning of the mission or from the instant he/she has joined the server

-the damage that player has done to the tanks (if the map you are playing has them)

-the amount of healing that player has done

-the amount of support that player has done

-the amount of money that player has collected

-the ping of that player

The credits section shows useful data about money obtained, lost and general money management in the current wave on the left and in the overall mission on the right, other than the rank from F to A+ depending on how much money has been collected; most precisely, from top to bottom:

-money collected

-money lost

-bonus money obtained

-total money spent on upgrades

-total money spent on canteens

-total money spent on buybacks to respawn faster

The personal performance section is the same as the one in the Casual/Community server scoreboard.

Why the scoreboard can be very useful here? You can directly see if a player is really performing so well he/she can be considered one of or the carrier of the lobby or if that person is playing poorly/idling.

A 1100 tour soldier only does 20k damage on Bavarian Botbash after 6 waves? Surely not a good sign.

A 2 tour scout does 80k damage on Metro Malice? This may mean that the scout resetted the medal, is an alt account, is a repeater or either is a new player that got a good education or read well-made guides for MvM; yes, even low tourers can perform well, sometimes even surpassing high tourers.

Now, you too can make this kind of critiques and more or less understand who you are playing with.

BE AWARE: the mouse input DOES NOT work in the MvM scoreboard, as of now.

Told you that this would have been a serious guide; too many people in Casual and especially MvM criticize people without knowing how they perform and/or the context that can be obtained from the data present in the scoreboard.

Now, before calling "CHEATERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" a sniper in the enemy team that headshotted you 3 times because you ran in a straight line in front of him, but has 20 deaths, or asking a spy to change class in MvM because "spy is useless", without knowing that THAT SPY has more damage than 4 other people combined and (probably) many tours, please. Check the scoreboard. The Tab button has a function, and now, you know what it is and where you can find it on your keyboard.

Make the community less hypocritical, the reality is in front of your eyes, on your screen.

Thank you for your attention.