Unsatisfying elo improvement in 1v1...

As I was losing a lot on strategy type issues, I decided to just start looking up known strong civ + composition + strategies online and start by just playing those regardless of what my opponent does.

I have gone almost +200 elo and way past my previous all time high (previous high was 1180, I am now high 1300s but seem to be plateauing) in about the last 3-4 weeks (29 games).

Thing is it feels kind of like "fake" improvement. All I did was just copy some thing that I read online. None of my mechanics / execution / game sense / strategy improved, but now my rating is higher than I thought it would be for a long time (maybe ever).

Anyone else been in this situation?