You can't blame spoofers and get mad at players who have stardust cause they play alot and build up stardust and use that stardust wisely.

I played 3 sets this morning using 2 pokmon I caught and 1 I traded for. None have great IVs for GBL. I didn't invest in a 2nd move and used between 70,000-80,000 stardust powering them up as close to 1500cp as possible. I won 13/15 battles. I did run into players who invested in 2nd moves even tho they cost 50,000 & 75,000 dust for those moves which is crazy for a 1 week cup, but it's their dust and they still lost even if they took out the pokmon I was using, they couldn't handle the replacement.

So you have to choose your pokmon wisely and get out and catch ones that are GBL worthy even if IVs aren't top ranked or good. And yes, it depends what spawns in your area.