no no no and no. The veteran players who have stuck around now have higher K/d than they used to because there are a lot more easy targets around. Back when there was more parity, the players had a harder time excelling.
This is the ONLY statement that has ANY validity in this thread up to Page 3.
Crash Orange, you've yet to make a valid point in any of your "replies/arguments". Instead of typing, listen to those who have been around here a while (not lurking for two years and creating an account) and know what they are talking about. Steve, Del, Scotch and Krusty make the most sense out of anyone posting in this thread.
The numbers ARE manipulated A LOT more than they were even attempted in Tour 24. I started in Tour 27 and there was rarely gangbanging. You had a true desire to "Reset maps". Rarely you had "NOE's to nowhere with more than 5 participants." Today's "Swarm mentality" has no skill involved, merely "substituting Quality with Quantity" and foisting it off as "Quality".
This game is also filled with a lot more liars, which is the saddest factor of today's game. Player Integrity is non-existent for most, with the exception of about 10% of the Arena. Exaggerations are more abundant than Vultching, all in the name of saving face on 200 or in here. If you look into other thread's right now, you'll find known liars and anything said by them, should be discarded like spent toilet paper.
You could take the Top 50 from Tour 24 and they would smoke the Top 50 of the present. I would even say that the "Tour 24" folks would have more than 1/2 of them being able to land. People like Drex, Leviathn, Ripsnort, Deudel (still the best I've ever seen in a 109), Morpheus, Tarmac, AHGOD, JRCrow, Anton, Vati66, Eastwood, Gremlin, Hblair (still the best I've ever seen in a 38), Mathman (still the best I've ever seen in a Hellcat) and many others are in a league of their own. More than 75% playing the game today never encountered these guys and would be in the tower fast.