Competitive? Never heard of such a thing.
sure there are people who ask 20 questions about your schooling, your degree of loss blah blah blah but I have never seen that as somebody trying to be 'competitive'. Many deaf people are more open and talk about just about everything under the sun... no secrets as it were (except maybe the whole LGBT thing-- still issues there).
I grew up oral, learned ASL when I got to college, been through the whole "you're lying!!" thing with hearing people (never from deaf that I can remember honestly) when told I am deaf. I ID as deaf even though 'medically' with a profound loss I somehow have enough hearing with the strongest hearing aids and speech I'd be ID'ed as HoH by some people.
Thhp what's important to me is how I feel about myself and how I see myself... don't care about others- that's their problem if they can't deal.