Thanks for the thoughtful reply.
If, as you state, the game was just for "Sweats" it would go broke pretty quick. The game needs casuals like me (although I do play a lot, I'm hardly in a top bracket... It's taken me years to get to a average level of play [1.22 KD which is nothing to write home about given how long I've played]). But I'm also an older gamer (54) and the learning curve for me is higher than most people as I wasn't born with a controller in my hand and the chaos on the screen bewilders me sometimes and I become disoriented (can't figure out where stuff is coming from even with the red arrow).
You're not wrong about the mix in lobbies. I am sure they are doing the best with match making but, to be fair, they can only work with what's in front of them at the time (if there are mostly sweats on late at night, that's what I'll get). I've played some games with friends who are pretty high level (Masters and the like) and it's a totally different world to me where mistakes simply can't be made. I do ok sometimes but usually I get rolled pretty quick. When I play with people more my level it's usually not a bad mix but we'll always end up in some horrific lobbies or get ranked (in the skill spread graph) rock bottom over and over again which is frustrating.
The point I was making with ranked was 1) Just blowing off some steam as it was really frustrating and 2) it's just always a crap experience.
Someone in this thread mentioned it's basically like pubs at the level I'm at (I'm Bronze III or something, I have not played loads) and I think he's probably right. Until you get to higher level games it's not really going to be all that different which is a fair point and certainly matches what I have observed. Not sure I can be bothered to grind higher but maybe in the next season split I'll consider it.
Ideally you'd want to go into that mode with a pre made squad but the people I play with aren't really interested and those I know that do play ranked seriously are so much better than me it would not really be fair on them to carry me constantly (or a good experience for me).
Oh RE: The foreign language thing. It's not the language that was spoken, it was the fact he did not shut up the entire time. I mean literally was talking the entire time, never shut up once. Not sure of the value in that even if you did understand it. Maybe he was having a conversation with someone else in the room with him but if it was that there wasn't much in the way of 2 way communication.