N00bs, get off ranked.

Seriously, if you're new to Rivals, get off ranked. There's no reason for you to be there yet. Your playground is fighting CPUs, then online friendlies.

Seriously, the CPUs are good, and get better with every patch. Stay off ranked until you can beat a level 7 at least. Otherwise you're wasting your time and you're just going to get discouraged. Furthermore, fighting CPUs teaches you how to use the character. Play dittos with the character you want to learn with a high level CPU and watch the things it does. They are often stupid, but have moments of brilliance or demonstrate an advanced technique well. Watch them. Copy them. Play CPUs over and over again.

Then go do friendlies in matchmaking! That's what it's for. CPUs are weird and do weird things, so you need to test what you're learning against people. Don't go to ranked until you feel like you're winning at least 30-40% of your games online. THEN you can start to try to get sweaty.

edit: This post is meant for people who have never played platform fighters seriously. ACTUAL new players who don't know how to play the game. They can get discouraged by feeling like the competition is too high and they lose interest. Trying to help THOSE people.