Valorant
I started out as iron in Valorant, the lowest rank in the game. It took me a month to get to platinum, four months to immortal, and a year+ to Radiant. It was my first ever competitive FPS. I mostly played Valorant because of how addictive grinding ranked was to my competitive desires. The ranked system in the game is effective, so over ~3 years it ate up free time. I learned a lot about the process of improving, hit multiple what I thought were "ceilings," and surpassing them. Also, playing against (and farming) pro players and popular streamers in ranked is also very fun :p.
I had no plans or desire to ever pursue competitive Valorant beyond ranked as it doesn't align with what I wanna do long-term, it was just a competitive outlet for me. Playing pro and competitive at a high level is typically a 12 hours/day career and I wouldn't be able to fit my life desires if I was doing that for years. This was until my school friends asked me (a lot) to join the college Valorant team and apply my skills there. I joined on the condition that we wouldn't be scrimmaging or having practices that take up lots of time outside of matches; they agreed so I played.
I was playing CVAL, which is considered Tier 2 valorant: basically a level below the official professional circuit with large salaries and such. In the last semester of CVAL I played, I set the record for the highest ACS (combat score, measure of your impact) during playoffs. I was elite at it and the matches in of themselves were extremely enjoyable. Both teams are fully trying, lots of practice (from the other team at least) with set strategies, warm-ups, etc. and you lay it all down in a Best of 3 or 5 series that takes hours. Our team made some decent runs and had success, and I had good teammates that set up to enable me well. I also played in a couple of LANs, winning one of them with some fun memories doing so.
As of writing this I'm still Radiant top 300, but that's only because this ranked season hasn't ended yet. I've only played 4-5 matches in the past month and don't intend on playing actively again as it draws my attention from other things I want to do. I've had outreach from schools with scholarship opportunities and T2 team trial offers. Questions from friends or Valorant players I know are around why I haven't tried pursuing a pro career if I'm able to play and excel at that level; it's weird to people when I try to explain my lack of interest in doing so. I understand why it can seem weird and don't blame them for thinking that way, it's just how I go about life :P. The natural tendencies that let me have fun and do well in Valorant (without getting burnt out unlike other activities) are the same tendencies that urge me to go elsewhere for long-term ventures, and I'm fine with that.
Fortnite
Fortnite was my first competitive shooter! Prior to this I had mainly played Roblox, Minecraft, and strategy/rts games. People like to clown on Fortnite competitively as it's a tier 2 esport and considered a childish game. I disagree, I actually think Fortnite is one of the hardest competitive shooters out there. The building mechanic adds a huge skill gap that can't be pre-learned/transferred from other games. This means anyone good at Fortnite actually needs to put in effort to become good at building, editing, aiming, and all other mechanics. The tournaments are also open to play by anyone and online, so access is easy and meritocratic.
I got into Fortnite during OG Fortnite in 2018; I played with my school friends and had a blast. I continued playing as the OG hype died down and got into playing tournaments/Fortnite esports with a few friends. It was similar to Valorant — just a side hobby during early high school. I had some tournament earnings and decent placements but my success was lower relative to Valorant. In both games though I never cared for competing in esports much, it was just a competitive hobby that I got good at and when you get skilled you just get drawn to esports naturally. In Fortnite my playstyle was known for being very mechanics heavy; I'd mastered building, editing, and aiming through grinding Creative mode and would just win lots of fights in tournament matches. Eventually after hitting a ceiling I was able to learn better game sense and improve that, peaking around Top 100 and 200 finishes in FNCS (main esports event).
Despite my esports involvement in these games, I'm probably best/most-passionate towards strategy games. Problem is they don't have a ranked system, but I have lots of hours over lots of different strategy/RTS type games — those kinds of games are my true passions and the games I love beyond simply competing. My main draw to competitive shooters isn't that I love the base game as much but rather the idea of a meritocratic, competitive playground with a well-run ranked system that quantifies your skill and rewards you for it.