Does the game have NPCs? 🙄

I've been playing this game for almost a week. I've also looked up how to skip ads. But every time I compete, I spend over 2 hours to reach 2000 points, while the top 2 players reach 2000 in less than half an hour. Is this cheating? Or are there NPCs in the system taking the top 2 spots? Not too many, not too few, exactly two. I can only get third place at best... Are there any other faster ways to collect items??