yea, i think hadz is right, all a matter of opinion. but for me the following is important:

1) connection is a big factor as wax said. which i think is a shame really, cos there is proberbly loads of good players who could be awesome with a good connection.

2) for the people that say equipment is important, here is my opinion:
I think spending loads of money on good equipment is a waste of time+money, i think its more important to be comfortable with ur equipment rather than spending money on the new shit hot mouse thats on the market. i used a ball mouse for years, then eventually got a mx518, although i like the mx518 i dont think its made me any better than with the ball mouse. i dont use a mouse mat, the desk seems fine enough for me . its more important to be comfortable with ur equipment

3)i think knowing the map is a big factor as well like HQ said, knowing spawn points, listening to sounds, knowing the tricks on the map. etc, but this come from practsie and watching others

4)also practise practise practise and bringing urself into form. in anything in life u wont be the best without training and practise - natural ability will only take u so far

5)people who talk about luck, well this balances out throughout games. u get some good luck, some bad

6)cfg, i think there are very few commands that will make u a better player. i think the only commands such as enermy model/enery colour and a few others will give you a bigger advantage. i think most of the commands are for personal preference. as with equipment, i think its more important to be comfortabe with ur cfg, and that you know your cfg inside out.

7) i must be bored to write to such a long post

"Good enough" does not equal "best there is", that's my point. You're taking your examples to unnecessary extremes which, in reality, happen almost never, because by today world standards, practically anyone can afford an optical mouse, decent pad, standard keyboard, 17" monitor, 256kbit conn and an hour to configure Q3 just the way they need to play comfortably. Like i said before, sub-par equipment can make you worser then you really are, true, but honestly, how many people are forced to use sub-par equipment?

At worst, a vast majority of players around here (and i'll dare to say, on any fps platform) possesses at least average equipment, and average is sufficient to play comfortably. If you are able to play comfortably, it means you can utilize most of your skills in a game. Of course, at one point, if you'll do well enough, you'll want to maximize the potential with very good equipment. But it will be all for naught, if you yourself don't have any skill worth talking about. Aye?

It is TALENT that makes someone a better than average player.
how that TALENT is achieved can be through a variety and/or a combination of routes, some have bad equipment but play sooo damn much that practice becomes their strong point, some lacking in the ability to have good hand eye coordination will enhance this aspect by tuning equipment/cfgs to suit.
no matter what method is used, my belief is having the will to improve will mean a search for the way to devolp each individuals potential.
therefore the only conclusion must be:-
you gotta want it and you gotta go get it and when you got it dont let go.

i am not a pro, but i am good (mmh, i hope)
you don't need a good config, you don't need good mouse or keyboard
you need to train

if you want to become very fast very good you have to train 10 hours a day or more
(look, warcraft players like moon or deadman practise 12 hours a day, and they earn money with it, in quake there is (in general) no money, 5 hours are enough)

now i play only 1 hour a day or somehting like that and i realize, that my skill decreses

a good mouse a good config and a good keyboard is a good help, but first i played quake with bad mouse (with a ball) and a 20 years old keyboard and was good....

hope i that is what you mean