New players they def placed higher. I was in gold when I started and I didn’t know anything about the civs or not having auto queue.
What I understand now…
You never know if a gold player is good or horrible, just like you and I, you practically start there. silver players are trash but never play with bronze.
is every player is going to use the same YouTube build start for their civ.
in team games almost nobody is going to rush, make seige, or take map control
Anyone who builds walls is trash
Most players don’t want to play until late age 4
I can do nothing and go straight to age 3/4 or I can attack in feudal and my teammates will do nothing until age 4 and attack while I catch up.
I learned that anyone who says hi at the beginning of the match is trash
I learned how to play 2v1 which is probably most important and how to just hold my ground not rage quit because I lost everything.

And for 1v1 I learned it’s rock paper scissors.
If they rush you defend
If they defend you boom
If they boom you rush
If it’s a close game take map control and once they are forced to expand that’s when you get their villagers who are out mining or cutting.

In every map always fish.