Rating level where study needs to be done

I'm 1500 rating now (barely), at what rating level can I no longer rely on just playing and need to do some sort of study to compete at that level?

If you mean how good can you get before you have to treat it more like a job and less like recreation it depends on whether or not, and how much, you enjoy activities which cause you to improve.

Study means different things to different people. Some people enjoy playing long games and analyzing them afterwards. You can learn a lot just doing this... I mean, that's essentially the only thing the first masters did and they were probably GM level.

I do the quick analysis after games and I find that helps a little. I'm just wondering because so far I've just been improving,  but I know that a point is coming soon where that improvement will come to a halt. I would imagine that point is at 1600 or 1700 and I know you can't generalize and everyone is different,  but that's my thoughts on it.

 Okay that  makes a lot of sense, thanks.