And be prepared to lose too. There is a big difference between hard/unfair AI and humans. Humans don't get the economic help that the AI gets (cheating), but they think outside the box and do things the AI never would. If you do get your backside handed to you on a silver platter, a REALLY good way to learn is to watch the replays. You can see what they did and how they did it.
As for the skilled players - they get upset by people who are not very good joining a game marked as skilled and making it unbalanced. It is equivilent to someone who drives their racing car on the weekend vs someone who drives F1 or Nascar etc...
They will help you and train you (well, give you advice) if the game is not a skilled one, or the teams are balanced with new players on both teams. Just don't always expect to get into a game with them as sometimes they want a challenge.
