[mercenario]

I don't think you will get competitive at games by just playing it a lot. Many pro players watch other players, talk to other players, train with other pro players, are coached by other players, so they don't just play 1k hours, they learn from others that have also played 1k hours. Just like you don't get good at football or tennis just playing games, you train specific skills, get coaches, etc.

As with many other things, each strategy will take you at some point (just playing matches), and to get beyond, you many need very different strategies (learn from other players, get coaching, etc).