It boggles the mind how EVERYONE thinks that they are the only free to play player out there and everyone else who beat them with levels must have paid hundreds of dollars. Odds are, 49/50 times that other guy is free to play and thinking the same thing about you as you win.
But I'll let you in on a little secret: You can spot people who have paid for colossal crates by their EPIC rarity level units. IF their epics (purple) cards are higher than the rest of their army, they have bought their levels. Why? Because colossal crates have an emphasis on epic cards where as all the other crates that free to play players get access to do not. So free to play players epic units tend to lag behind the rest of their army. So if their rares and commons are 8's and 9's but their epic is +1 to the rest, you know what they did =)
So there ya go, do with that knowledge what you will, but you will soon realize the amount of people paying is a lot less than you think. Odds are, that other person is just another free to play player that started before you and is struggling harder to climb than you are, which is why you met. So identify their strategy, counter it, and claim the W.