"My GBL experience - love and extreme hate. Just wondering - how about You?"

#PokemonGO: I just felt I need to bounce my thoughts around and get some community feed back.I have been playing GBL since last week of season one (all leagues available). I was completely new to this, but I have an old account, some powerful mons and a lot of resources so I decided to give it a try. I gotta say I got hooked, especially because I got a very good run to level 7. It was so good I got a 14 win streak and almost immediately got promoted to level 8 with a score of >2100. I was playing only Ultra. I was running with mons I saw with other players - Flygon, Venu and Alolan Muk. When I saw Giratina is a power house I immediately switched off Flygon. Good times.Then season 2 starts. Great League was a mixed bag as I was still learning baiting, switching, energy farming, picking mons to switch etc. Still getting my preferred teams. It was hard, but hey - my already known UL was coming. And then UL came... and it still was hard. Completely not like in season 1. I was running Venu, Alolan Mul, Gira-A, maxed and with optimal movesets. Later I invested in a great line-up of Registeel, Swampert, Gira-A. Also optimal movesets. Still felt I was getting nowhere.I am currently on level 8, constantly bouncing around the 2150 score. I win 3:2, 4:1 and suddenly I’m thrown on a full counter players and get wasted 1:4, 1:4. I don’t think I am the best player around, but I think I’ve got the in and outs and I know when I lose because of me and when because I stood no chance because of the setup. I have a feeling the game is taunting me. When I get a decent score and lead the series with 3:0 I am suddenly thrown twice against a team with the perfect counter leading and lose. I feel trapped like a hamster on a spinning wheel, constantly running and getting nowhere no matter how hard I try. Is this how it’s supposed to feel? I feel like this is a major grind that requires a lot of luck to encounter players with inferior sets to yours. A great effort of a few won series can be immediately shattered in an hour with one crappy 0:5. And the bugs, lags that can cost you a win.God... I like GBL because I love to compete and it’s a fun competition on the go. It’s a reason to keep playing PoGo. This is were my mons, worked on for four years, can finally be of use. I want that Pika Libre but I just feel it’s a grind. A grind with heavy RNG involvement. I hate it.Is this how it’s supposed to be? How do You guys make it to level 9 and do not go crazy? Or maybe I am doing something wrong? Playing mostly one set is wrong? What is the key to GIT GUD? How do You create Your sets to know what is optimal at the moment? Please advise. Thanks. via /r/TheSilphRoad https://ift.tt/2COsMAP