Hey, it's good to see a fresh face to the world of competitive battling (: I'll try and answer your question as best I can!
1) Well, in my experience I just read as much as I could about it and then jumped straight in. You seem to have got the reading down, so I'd say try and build a team and download shoddybattle. If you don't know, shoddybattle is a battling simulator which is excellent for practice and testing out teams, as you can test a team, find it's weak points and easily change it, all before breeding for hours on end (:
2) Hmm. The opinions on this differ greatly.. Imo it isn't cheating as long as you Pokesav something that you'd be able to breed for anyway (ex. no WonderGuard Spiritombs) (; And breeding is terribly arduous for those of us without the days to devote to it.. I've been looking for someone to Pokesav for me as of late haha D: Most people prefer you to inform them before the battle that you use "legit hacks", and it's seen as good sportsmanship to let them know (:
3) There are a lot of places on this site that I've seen for you to get battles, I'll give you a friendly match (haven't Wifi'd in months D: ), ask people that you know are competitive battlers when they're online if they're up for one and if you have that much of an appetite for battles you can join multiple forums like this to get even more battles ;D Also, look out for any tournaments that you can enter in the near future, because even if you're just beginning they're great experience. Especially i they're hosted over an IRC because the banter can be hilarious (:
I could help with those teambuilding questions, but you might want to get someone else because as I say, I haven't Wifi'd in months, I'm a bit rusty (;
Hope I've helped!
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