[siddboots]

I'm in my mid thirties, and only play a few games a week. But I manage to stay at around MGE rank, and usually have good experiences.

The best advice I can give you is never solo-queue. Add people to your friends list as soon as you sense that they are a good communicator and are giving a modicum of consideration to the experiences of the other players. Once you've built up 40-50 such people, you should be able to always start a game by joining a lobby, even if it might mean a bit more of a wait.

The thing is that in a group of five people, having even two or three people being on the same page and taking the game seriously will tend to dictate the tone of communication. That alone will give your team a reliable advantage over others, particularly in silver and nova levels, so you should be able to rank up reasonably fast to at least nova 2 or 3 without needing to worry to much about your individual skill.