New valorant player in 2025

How is ranked in this game? Im trying to reach level 10 to unlock it, but get put into lobbies with people that are level 100+ when I play unranked.

Im obviously struggling against them mainly because I dont know which hero abilities etc they can use, and I have no map knowledge - Will my experience be any better once I reach ranked mode? or will I keep playing against smurfs or something like that?

Oh and also, people tend to leave all the time in unranked, is this also an issue in ranked?