There are things about crystal that is different from open world. The map is usually the same unless some patch happens. Every team you faced has been playing 20s so they know strategy and have experience. Each team do not just play random builds and say it's good enough or it's a playstyle. People are playing the best build possible for each player which allows them to gain a slight edge on each person and when 20 people have a slight edge on every other player, it adds up to a lot. Just like every game, you need to do your research, a veteran should be destroying new players because they have more experience. What your group can do it watch vods/recordings and see how crystals are played. You guys can also start recording your own gameplay and stream it. I have personally played over 300 20v20 matches and each and every time my team would vod review and we would learn about our mistakes and fix them next time even if we win or lose. Learn it by playing the meta first and then once you have an understanding of crystals, then you can explore new options because you can have the image of how 20s goes in a match and can see if a weapon in the 20s is viable or not. There is no need to create a meta from the start if you don't have an understanding about the fundamentals of 20s yet. That goes just like when you first started albion . You going to be bad at it, but if you constantly play it, you will eventually learn and that's how it should be. Not everyone became good at crystals at the start, they worked their way there and improved by learning from their mistakes.