It’s mostly meta and effort. Your reflexes don’t decline THAT until your 60s. Sure you might not be able to be a top 1% but beyond that it’s mostly just practice and giving fucks lol.
I’m not reading patch notes, I’m playing builds I want and ignoring meta, and I’d rather pop 2 off in the noggin than seek out and practice with better players.
OTOH I’m turning the fastest laps of my life with my auto racing and am chasing a win!
CAL got somewhat serious at the very top and was basically the precursor to MLG. CAL open was very hit or miss, but at least in CS it got quite serious pretty quickly. Those top players were some of the first ever to get paid semi consistent and were the best in the world at the time.
I participated in a local Unreal Tournament competition and won $3k. Was $75 buy in and I think I got somewhat lucky in my match placement. Was allowed to do this solo at 14 🤣.
Lots of terrible players in my bracket while I watched the best pick each other off on the other half. Took second honestly by sitting back and picking off kills from others engagements 🤷♂️.
I did CAL P on in the CS1.6 era with middling success.
I barely can get high in the mid tier leagues today. Too much specialization, meta, guns, characters, and the playing field is literally thousands of times bigger.