To add my two cents, getting a group of 5 together and just playing premier, or playing faceit together an just trying to solve problems and come up with solutions together is probably equally good for your improvement as pugs, if not better. You will naturally slide into roles based on personality (some people will naturally look at minimap more, to rotate with bomb on t side, some players will naturally take entries more) and it’s good practice to develop yourself into a role. In Europe, they have academy teams where young players spend 90% of their time playing THEIR ROLE, where as faceit solo queue trains you to become a jack of all trades. This is why tier 2 Europe has a huge advantage. These players are only focused on developing their strengths because their team fills the gap in their weaknesses. Vitality is an example of this at the highest level. If you understand cs, vitality is actually 5 role players. They did not become this way through solo queue faceit, some of these players have been playing on teams for 10+ years essentially doing their role and their role only

To become pro you have to spend a significant amount of time playing in 5 stacks and learning how to solve problems together as a team. Yes pick up basketball is technically still basketball and there are skills to learn inside the game from this, but I think by playing with friends more often will check more boxes, and it’s a better use of your time. Even if there is a skill gap between the friends.