I think the issue here is what is meant by the word competitive.

I do not think anyone could argue that CF is not competitive as it stands but what I think the point that Eskelian's is trying to make is more to do is the game also fair. What I mean by fairness in this sense is what factors determine the outcome of a PVP situation.

In a game with near perfect fairness, player skill, should be the only thing (besides a little luck) that effects the outcome of a game, chess would be a good example of this.

I would argue CF is pretty fair, where player skill is the most important factor determining the outcome of a PVP encounter.

However, there are other important factors that can have an impact on the outcome. In CF, these would be skill %, gear differences, and prep usage (not necessarily exclusive), these are not related to a players skill but can (and do) impact the outcomes of any given PVP encounter.

Now, I would argue skill does trump these but the question is by how much? How much of an advantage is it possible to have assuming equal skill levels but widely different skill %, gear, or preps, etc.?

I can't answer that last question because it is difficult to get good data to look at, but you could run simulations in a test environment to at least as Eskelian suggests, look at the differences in DPS that having different skill % conveys.

Also, it does no good to look at individual performance (such as your own) and argue its proof that the game is fair (in the way I defined it) because we can't test the relative difference bewtween skill levels of your opponents easily. I would assume you are an above average player which likely accounts for your relative success even though you handicap yourself with low skills and less then optimal gear.