[jwestbury]

Likewise -- I played in CAL-M in Counter-Strike back in the day. This statement dates me, I realize, but for those who aren't aware, CAL was the top online Counter-Strike league, and CAL-M was the second tier. IIRC, there were ~10 teams in CAL-I, the top tier, and about 40 teams in CAL-M, separated into multiple regions. (Lower tiers were CAL-IM, i.e., intermediate, and CAL-O, i.e., open - anyone could join CAL-O, but getting past that required promotion.)

Anyway, point is, I was probably in the top ~1000 Counter-Strike players in North America in the early to mid aughts. But the gap between CAL-M and CAL-I was just ridiculous -- we're talking about the gap between a college sports team and a pro team. The average CAL-M team wouldn't win a single match in a CAL-I season.

So, yeah - the gap is increasingly large the closer you get to the top of a given pursuit.