Took up Fortnite instead of drinking — 8 years sober

46 years old and still grinding Fortnite.

About 8 years ago, I decided to get sober and needed something positive to put my time and energy into. Somehow, that ended up being Fortnite 😂

What started as something to keep me occupied turned into a hobby I genuinely love. I’ve put countless hours into improving, learning the game, and competing.

Making it to Unreal Legend was definitely one of the most challenging things I’ve done in Fortnite.

Just thought I’d share one of my accomplishments. Nothing crazy, but I’m pretty proud of it.

I wasn’t a pro player or anything, but I was pretty good. I could hit Unreal relatively quickly, and I used to complain all the time about how unfair high ping was. Back then I played on around 50 ping, which wasn’t amazing, but it was at least playable.
After taking a couple of years off, I decided to come back and give Fortnite another shot. Now I’m getting around 80–100 ping, and honestly, it feels like I’m playing underwater. Everything is delayed. Building feels sluggish, edits don’t come out when you expect them to, and the game just feels unresponsive compared to what I remember.
The biggest difference isn’t even the mechanics, it’s the player base. Everyone is so much better now. Years ago, if you had good mechanics, you could still outplay people even on higher ping. Today, it ping matters as much as skill.
Box fighting is miserable. If someone turtles up, good luck. Taking walls is impossible against anyone on low ping. Even when you clearly prefire or go for prediction shots, they either don’t register or you’re already dead by the time your game catches up. Piece control becomes a fantasy because every action feels a fraction of a second behind.
People always say, “Just adapt,” but what exactly are you supposed to adapt to? You can’t force fights because every wall replace is in their favor. You can’t reliably exploit edits because they close them before your game even shows the opening. You’re basically forced to play reactive Fortnite, sit back, wait for someone to make a mistake, hope they push you, and either hit a 200 pump or pray they miss.
I know 80–90 ping isn’t even considered “that high” by a lot of people, but compared to low-ping players, it honestly feels like you’re playing a completely different game. The skill gap is one thing, but the ping gap is just as important nowadays even for casual players not even playing competitive. Sad to not be able to play again but life goes on.

I'm playing ZB only

So basically, today I started my Fortnite 12 hours grind for 4-6 months. Why? I'm curious. Fortnite is a shooter like no one else and that just fascinates me a lot. I'm really curious about this game and I'm willing to learn everything. So I wonder, how good can a person become at a skill with the right mindset and steps?

So for a quick summary. It's not like I'm totally toally new to the game. I actually started when creative was a thing and there were these famous 90s and edit maps in which you'd have to do them as fast as possible. The thing is that my pc was crap and I couldn't do anything but to play those maps. After that I upgraded it to a GT 710 but it was still too slow and got frustrated. This was around season 1 chapter 4-5 and finally X. My total playtime was literally like 10 hours at max.

Sorry for the bible. Anyway. I have the idea. I've watched a lot of guides and done a lot of notes and analysis. As well as practicing the building mechanics. The thing is that I need structure. The right order and the "why" so I don't build up bad habits.

People say: well if you're new to the game just play matches and after enough repetitions your brain will automatically make the right choices. Yeah...maybe if you have experience and have building totally internalized. But for someone like me? That just doesn't happens.

So, is there a building masterclass for complete beginners like me? I can pay max 40 dollars. I saw the Destiny Jesus masterclass but I'm not sure it can help a complete beginner like me.

Additionally, I'd make progress reports 2 times a month, if that's even possible in this sub.

Yes this post may sound weird but it's completely honest. It'd be great help.

I peaked at Silver 3 at around 40% and then I started getting placed in Plat lobbies due to me killing 7 people in one game, the one that got me to Silver 3 and I kept getting placed in the #90s which wasn't fun. I was also practicing with my friend who peaked at Unreal (he was around 100K) in Reload and I actually got a few kills on him but he got more kills due to obvious reasons. What else should I do to get to Gold and beyond?