LT pretty much came out after the elite players left, and yes, those that still played were elite and yes they did play LT. in fact, ren even went from armor to LT around that same time...... about 3-4 months after base players went to LT instead of armor.
LT is much more simple than armor, and if you think otherwise, well you just prove my point even more.
oh and I dont even need to bring up the old base vs ren matches.
spoiler alert: ren beat base players in both mods
and yes, the top 10% of the elite players quit playing after only a couple years and moved on to other games, myself included. This is still my most favorite pc game of all-time though, which is why i still play.
btw, i didnt just play ren. i was whooping yall asses in base/lt/rabbit/arena, you just didnt know who i was