New player here, who probably isn't going to stick around.

Played this game casually a lot in LAN and some of my best memories gaming were in SupCom.

I really want to be able to play competitively, but the steep learning curve and general frustration of being punished for less than optimal play is probably the sort of thing that only people who are far more patient than I am would be able to weather.
It's a wonderful game for casual play, but trying to reach a point where I could move up the ladder feels like it has optimized all of the fun that I had in casual games, to the point that I don't wanna pick it up and just want to play something that I feel like I could occasionally win at.

@F-Odin
Hey F-Odin.

I happen to be the friend that Wainan mentions - the one that doesn't really have a clue what I'm doing.
I haven't attempted ladder because as I understand it, I will just lose.

My experience of the game so far on return has involved starting games against individual AI and increasing the difficulty, then watching my replays.

The focus has been on getting me to understand Feb basic style of play that I need to be able to master in order to ladder.
I'm shit at this, and feel like I just end up pissing off my teachers. From my perspective, If I can't beat the AI up to at least harder difficulty, there is probably little point laddering. I am probably just too late to the party with games like this.

So far it feels like a lot of losing in order to prepare myself to play people that I'm probably going to lose to.