Diamond Tier

There are ways to improve your skills or just grind your way up by playing a lot. If you're a speed player, I recommend practicing time attacks to learn the map layouts and then jumping into ranked matches. It's true that the importance of top-tier karts and pets has increased significantly compared to the past, but if you master the fundamentals and improve your map knowledge, even free-to-play players can reach at least Challenger. (There are many tutorial videos on YouTube for improving fundamentals, so watch those and practice in the training grounds and time attacks.) If you're an item player... well, you just have to pay. This game mode is a real mess, and it's hard to survive without a kart and pet with good performance. (Even though I spend money occasionally, I rarely play item matches unless there's a mission. Even if you buy something with decent performance, the meta changes quickly, and you'll have to open your wallet again.)