You all joined the shard at more or less the same time and at approximately the same level. If you are trailing by 8 levels now, you have yourself to blame. Noone else. It's strategy. Do your dailies every day. E v e r y day. Spend all your crystals on energy refreshes. The more energy you burn, the more experience you gain and the faster you level (and you farm more gear and character shards). It's really a race to reach high levels fast and unlock new content fast. It appears that your competitors were faster than you. They made an effort to gain their advantage. In this manner, arena shards are really fair to all.
The good thing is, that if you choose to play consistently and develop your roster well, you can catch up in a matter of months.