TheDarkDemon

Inter is mastery of the basics.
Veteran is expansion of basics and stylistic development.
Elite is just taking what got you to Veteran and going above and beyond with it.

The pivot meta shifted the inter standards down in my opinion to have an effect on the int-vet gap. I remember back when being inter was all the rage and you had to be stupidly good to get inter which defeats the very definition of the word "intermediate", and by the time you were there Vet wasn't too far away.

But I mean you should try to think of that conceptually as opposed to raw skill. When I say the inter standards shifted down i mean it shifted down in relativity to the rising general expectation. I mean there is no doubt some of today's begs would be inter in an older set of standards.

Think of it like a running race between 3 contestants, the first runner "the concept of inter" is up against the "skill required to get inter" and "the general rising standard." The concept caught up to the skill to basically give the ranks literal definition some relevance, but at the same time they are both running alongside the rising standard. So at the end of the day the standards lowered WITHIN the standards being raised as weird as that sounds, this works out due to the pivot community basically just receiving more and more resources to raise the bar with, effectively counteract the raising standard and make the concept and skill the main points of relevance.

To be an intermediate, you must have a good understanding of the basics and also perfecting them as well as having a noticable animating style. Something that makes anyone recognize who made a certain animation just by the spacing and the sense of details.

As for veteran, you take what you have as an intermediate and devolop it a bit more along with having a great sense of details: Supposingly, a veteran has super detailed backgrounds, perfect movements which means a good balance between power and smoothness without getting rid of your style and a good understanding of particles.

Elite is basically veteran in a nutshell.

I like reapers explanation the best, should be stickied somewhere, dunno.