When I first started playing this game late 2020 I absolutely grinded and in only about two years time managed to reach 5 digit with like 15-20 days of playtime. I had terrible fundamentals and grinded 1-2 jump maps with hr and Dt if I could retry spam them enough but always had the underlying desire to play speed/flowaim being a big metal music fan, and realized those were the skills I needed to improve to play those maps. Once the news about wooting and rapid trigger broke I thought to myself that I was good enough to play the maps and it was simply a hardware issue that disabled me from playing these maps. I sat for two years waiting for a wooting keypad preorder racking up meaningless playtime on maps far out of my skill range thinking that once this keypad comes in all these maps I was C ranking with 50+ misses would suddenly become easy. They did not.
It was after about a year trying my absolute best to let the hardware carry me that I fully came to terms with the fact that my fundamentals were atrocious. Sure I could pass some 6-7* diffs of the songs I enjoyed but I was nowhere near where I wanted to be in terms of skill. This was until a few months or so ago when I decided that I was legitimately going to sit down and grind from the bottom up to improve my skill. I got a new keyboard (not because I thought it'd give me some skill boost but because I liked it) and grinded with of course rapid trigger still on for a few weeks. The results after some weeks of trying were okay, I gained some singletap and streaming stamina going into 220+ bpm and I had noticeably improved consistency but it still wasn't even close to my goals. That was when I made the decision to turn rapid trigger off. I realized that I was relying too much on the safety net of rapid trigger to carry me through any stream longer than 40 notes and that if I really wanted to improve I would have to strain. Since I have turned it off not only have my fundamentals improved (oddly enough I got a big boost in reading skill but that's likely unrelated) , but more importantly I am legitimately enjoying the game again for the first time in nearly two years.
Osu is a game all about self improvement and achieving that in a way that works for you. Sure for some people that could be by buying a rapid trigger device with an actuation point thinner than a piece of hair but no singular new piece of hardware is magically going to turn you into the next up and coming top 100 player overnight. Find something that you enjoy doing while on the game and practice it until your fingers fall off (not literally) and the results will almost certainly speak for themselves. Some of the most important things I can say above everything else is take breaks, play what makes you the happiest, and plz enjoy game.
It was after about a year trying my absolute best to let the hardware carry me that I fully came to terms with the fact that my fundamentals were atrocious. Sure I could pass some 6-7* diffs of the songs I enjoyed but I was nowhere near where I wanted to be in terms of skill. This was until a few months or so ago when I decided that I was legitimately going to sit down and grind from the bottom up to improve my skill. I got a new keyboard (not because I thought it'd give me some skill boost but because I liked it) and grinded with of course rapid trigger still on for a few weeks. The results after some weeks of trying were okay, I gained some singletap and streaming stamina going into 220+ bpm and I had noticeably improved consistency but it still wasn't even close to my goals. That was when I made the decision to turn rapid trigger off. I realized that I was relying too much on the safety net of rapid trigger to carry me through any stream longer than 40 notes and that if I really wanted to improve I would have to strain. Since I have turned it off not only have my fundamentals improved (oddly enough I got a big boost in reading skill but that's likely unrelated) , but more importantly I am legitimately enjoying the game again for the first time in nearly two years.
Osu is a game all about self improvement and achieving that in a way that works for you. Sure for some people that could be by buying a rapid trigger device with an actuation point thinner than a piece of hair but no singular new piece of hardware is magically going to turn you into the next up and coming top 100 player overnight. Find something that you enjoy doing while on the game and practice it until your fingers fall off (not literally) and the results will almost certainly speak for themselves. Some of the most important things I can say above everything else is take breaks, play what makes you the happiest, and plz enjoy game.