As the title states, I literally haven't improved in the 10 months I've been on Anther's Ladder.  I've won only 8 of the 60 or so total matches I've played, and I'm slowly descending towards the Bronze III rank, which is for the absolute worst players on Anther's, which really just mates my frustrated, angry, and embarrassed at my own play.  I'm just completely terrible at this game.

The worst part about this is, even if it seems like I'm winning, my opponent always seems to clutch it out.  Take Donkey Kong for example.  Against my Villager, he gets walled out by the Lloid Rockets and slingshots, and it's very easy to tack on damage, but only three mistakes are needed for him to rack up 80% and then kill with an up air.  It's ridiculous and I feel like I'm cheated out of a win every time (even though I'm really not).  I almost always lose to a lucky, janky kill even when I'm a full stock ahead and I just want to throw my controller every time.

I recently played endless friendlies against a Gold-ranked Bayonetta and Ryu player, and he completely destroyed me in almost every game.  His Ryu was bearable, but I would usually be in the lead until he got one Shoryuken that killed me at 70%.  His Bayonetta, however, completely shut me down.  Every time I would jump, I would get punished, and one mistake led to me eating 20% from a combo.  I literally couldn't do anything about it.

My question is, how exactly are these people so good?  How are they able to consistently read me and combo me to oblivion, all while shutting down every single one of my options?  How do people learn how to do this, and how am I not able to achieve this?

Every time I watch a tournament match, I think to myself "How are these players so good?  How are they able to get all these reads and punish so hard?  Why am I not at this level yet?  What makes them better than me?"

All I want to know is how I'm supposed to achieve this level of skill.  I know it may take a long time, but I see players going from Bronze to Gold in only a month whereas I've been stuck in Bronze for the past year with no signs of improving.

If somebody could help me explain why I'm still terrible at this game after over a year, that would help me so much.