Your worst enemy is yourself, do not compare yourself to others when you want to imrpove. Learn only how to look at yourself and how to do things better.
As "pro" gamer i can tell you that you reach the top only with time and the abuse of bugs/exploit every now and then... to get a unfair advantage over other people. Sounds Bad, but this is fact
As a pro whos played at a sponsored top world level in raiding in WoW for a long time in the past , and who has attended and scored very high in tourneys in Fortnite since 2018. As well as extensive BF3 compos play. This is not correct.
Our time is limited by 24 hours a day
You improove by understanding what you do
-from game mechanics to Hardware on your computer , easyest example is
PvP. Understand how the Server works , how the engine works how your able to jump flip kite and combine those elements. When you Master those its time to max it out with for example your Hardware , Upgrade for more fps when you get more fps you will be forced to buy a New computer screen current top 390hz with backlight strobing, this you need in order to improove your aim, then it comes to coose the right mouse and keyboard,take a Look on the latency make shure you play under 60 ms,When you did this you are atleast better then 90%. You play a diferent game , a smooth game.
Master this and next Step will be to know your enemy , this means only by seeing theyr type of gear you need to know whats theyr protection in order to choose the right weapon for them, because when you know theyr weakness you got the advantage, Environment hills trees mobs everything plays a role
Example your enemy is hitting harder then you but theyr System is way slower,because they play with 60 hz screen while you max out 390hz then go close combat as close as you can this makes it harder to hit you ( got to do with the fps and whats smooth on the screen)
Misunderstand me the correct way here Nika but in general to that comment, but on the whole topic;; And this is what separates someone who wants to become good or are very good, from someone who wants to actually competitively try to reach the top, and are already really good but can't breach into becoming better.
60MS?? is literally unplayable, a competitive game claiming to be anything above casual, would never claim this as OK. even 20-30 is stretching it. Preferably you want to move as close to where the servers for the game you play are. There's still a clip of me in the qualifiers against mitr0, where i'm on 25 ping and he is on 0. good fun.
Hardware, you don't need that much as people claim, because of a simple reason, do you like graphics? Shame, you want to go ahead and crank every setting related to anything graphics wise as far down as humanly possible. Oh and you wanted a 1440p or above? not happening, its 1080p all the way to get the smooth fps. without googling it, most people wont even know how to tell you the difference between a 240 and a 360hz monitor(just like yourselfsaying it makes you somehow hit harder....????) , 240 imo would be the go to. 360 wont really benefit others than in a handful of game titles (and in those titles if would benefit a lot presuming everyone also plays on the same ping).
And when you do all of the mechanical and hardware things, you master those, you run in and get insta clapped because you forgot to spend years in the most important skill you forget to mention, the magical zing that makes you often scream "oh my god cheater!". The part where you do not need to be the best mechanical player, nor have the echelon of everything you mention. The magical thing called "Game Sense".
Its the most enjoyable thing i do in Fortnite now especially in open invitationals where a lot of random plebs get to play too who are not normally invited. From their perspective i would sink back and sigh "fucking wallhacks man" a lot of the time. When in reality using them as a example they play so predictable it is deteriorating to play against them. No need to build, no need to really apply any mechanical skill. You just let them do some stuff they probably think makes them good and then kill them and move on.
Your worst enemy is, and will always be yourself, do not ever compare yourself to others as much as it is possible, do not listen to people telling you to cheat to reach the top. But rather be focused on understanding why you are who you are. And how you can work with you. Know when to give up, know when not to give up, know what makes you learn what you learn. Build on your strengths, learn to positive your mistakes. And when you have reached what you feel may be your roof, then you can look at what someone else does in a certain situation compared to your own, not to repeat their ways or to compare what you should do instead. but to understand why they did the 100 things before that moment to understand again yourself how you play, or how you do what you do.
Also contradictable do not be afraid to step away entirely for a day or three, not so much for competitive ness but it is in any level of play easy to tunnel vision the wrong answer. Or the wrong path in general.
in fortnite i'm a pretty average mechanical player, yet i'm able to perform because i know my strength is being an igl + having good game sense + having inhuman aim from spending ages in kovaaks and other shooters for a long time (mechanical skill in Fortnite refers to building and editing more than aiming and movement ) from years and years of playing. It allows me and the other dads i play with to do as good as we do against a army of red bull fumed coke hyper kids who hink that mechanical and hardware skills is all that matters. Many times it feels like the famous clip of Indiana jones.
A fairly good game to play that will grab your neck and force you to either be annoyed at life and how everyone is better than you, or force you to play and better yourself, by improving yourself, where game sense is not necessarily something you will really get untill you master a lot of mechanics is just to go play Trackmania. Be your best, and just learn how to be your best. And resist the temptation to compare yourself to others, and to avoid just copying what someone better is doing... And trust me if you play trackmania that, is easier said than done.
Althought what nika said is somewhat correct as some titles and companies have, or rather lack what pro players feel is a competetive integrity. A example for this would be Call of Duty and Activision Blizzard, no one at all takes it serious, it is rampant with cheats, and the company behind does not seem to care because they only want to rake in money. Fortnite sadly in the past few years have gotten muddled down a lot too with things like people using CZ is a losing battle. same for CS as well, which is why third party MM services are vastly more popular than the integrated one in the game.
A lot of people do try to take shortcuts, but it will never work to reach the top, because thy know it themselves that they did not realy reach the top, if you cheat to win, everyone knows you did not actually win. And no matter the amount of lies you tell yourself, or they tell themselves. They too know that. And this includes and any form of cheating.
Rambling over, but tl dr you can be old and good without cheating.