Joe, you've gotten good answers, but just to clarify:
Stroke play is you against the course. What other players do is totally immaterial when it comes to your average. You can beat Tour Champions all day long in stroke play, and that alone won't do a thing for your average.
Beating higher ranked players in match play will help, and winning (or placing in the top 3 or so) in Ready Goes will help even more. In fact, that's how I nudged myself into the Legend tier before I was quite ready for it,
Note that the above methods only work until you hit Legend. At Legend, those avenues disappear.