The skill with utcomp is sticking the xhair on opponents, outsmarting, and outmoving them, not trying to differentiate them from their surroundings.
Being able to spot people and follow them when they blend into the map around them, is a skill that is inconsistent, depending on the models the players are using, the teamcolor the other team is using, the .ini settings being used. Gamma settings also have a big effect on player visibility and bskins lessen gamma setting's effect on player visibility.
Some other skills that are inconsistent, because they depend on the information from the game which is inconsistently communicated to the player, not because the player lacks the concentration or skill, but because the game just is sporadic in communicating to the player, is being able to see if you have struck your opponent. Hitsounds compensate for this gameplay effecting inconsistency.
I'm not a fan of newnet, but that was designed to lessen the ping's effect on the game outcome. It was essential for competitive play and ladders, because there were so many disputes about servers and west coasters had 70-130 ping whenever playing east and etc. Public server admins adopted this feature, because they thought it was cool, and it allowed the occasional euro celebrity to stop by. It isn't perfect. UTC weapon balance is shifted more towards hitscan. But hitscan was always overpowered in the beginning just people with certain settings could hitscan better than others just because of their settings. There are still settings that allow people to hitscan better than others, but the annoying ones have been eliminated. This ruins the experience for the lesser players that wouldn't do well anyways, but the game seems less fun, becuase people are killing them more often and they are getting hit when they are behind corners and etc.