Like any other game, this game has its own learning curve that is usually higher than people expect. Once you get past that barrier, that is where all the fun begins.
The game, that complex has a lot of combinations you can try out and the only limit can be your lack of creativity. So be creative, do not be afraid to fail and learn out of your own mistakes.

You may also want to decide whether you want to play this game with the keyboard and play with a slight disadvantage or risk to suffer when transitioning to the controller.

Spoiler: There are toxic people like in any other game, so if you truly want to become good, I suggest setting the chat to the team only or even off. For the best experience, again like in any other game, play with your friends.

I will not forbid you playing ranked games, but if you really are a beginner you might want to play a few casual games and extra modes, just to learn the basics on how to control the vehicle.

But before you storm off and score your first goal you might want to change some of the default settings:

1. Disable "Camera Shake"
   
2. Bind "Air Roll Left" and "Air Roll Right"
   

Ranked mode is the place where people will try their best to win the game.
Under diamond rank, you probably will NOT encounter any sort of mind games, since players are simply bad and they have not yet mastered the ability to control the ball good enough.

After or even before hitting platinum the mind games start to show off in the game and that is where the game really becomes intense - competitive.

Before that, you have nothing to worry about except not getting tilted, hitting the ball and just landing your shots. The only mind games you will see in low ELO is genuine ♥♥♥♥-talking spamming in chat which can be easily avoided by disabling the chat.

P.S. If you are losing for more than 3 points and your teammate sounds like he has given up, just surrender and go another game. There is no point in torturing yourself in the game and wasting time.

You should create a clan for your team. You can choose other colours than plain blue and orange and set a funny name for it. Keep in mind this silly name, which is displayed over the screen at the end of the game when you win.
Personally, I have set a really silly message for my clan so I get a lot of funny responses from people that understand it.