I was curious, if I'm playing on a server that is very close by that is giving me less than 50 ping, am I at an advantage when I play people who are in up as high as the 200-300 range? Or would it be better to have a higher ping? So that it's more aligned with the rest of the people in the server. I feel like when you have too low of a ping you are at a disadvantage because of the other people who are lagging, or have significantly higher pings.

Well the netcode is client side, but the less lag the better. Playing against laggy players is frustrating for you but also for them, I have no idea why people play when they have a high ping.