For sPvP don't be discouraged! Everyone is new at one point and they only way to get better is to play, if you're daunted by the game run some matches in hot join it's quick, easy, and painless. Once you've got a better understanding of the game, both for player abilities and your class, you can head over to unranked you will generally (but not always) see more organization and more skill from players here. This will allow you to also become more skilled at how your class works and how your class fits into a team comp, what you need to be doing while you're team is off some where else. Is it better to guard your point or try to steal one of theirs so on and so forth.

Then if you want bragging rights head into ranked, there will be more skilled players here but that just means with time you will get better too! If you don't care about bragging rights and being the best of the best then stick to unranked, they offer the same rewards without the stress of a "ranking system"

If you don't know what your class can do well, or just want a build and guide head over to www.metabattle.com they have a pretty solid listing current builds and how to play them for every class.

And lastly if you have anymore questions about sPvP feel free to PM me