Game has a massively high skill ceiling. I'm always up for games, I'm rank 10 in 2's and 9 in 3's and still feel like a bad at this game. I'm good for some decent beginner/intermediate tips. Just hit me up on steam. There is definitely penalty for leaving a ranked game you do not reconnect to (15 minutes of punishment timeout). There is player by player text and voice muting if you have a problem with shit talkers just mute them asap. I play a mean goalie and don't mind holding down the backline for newer players want stable teammates.
Ranked is a much more stable environment if you dislike leavers. There is no penalty in all other non-ranked modes. They are drop-in drop-out where AI fill in for missing players. Mainly what occurs is in lopsided games outside of ranked players just leave when they get behind by a few goals or more. Ranked allows for voted forfeits - but it takes 100% team vote and each player can call 1 forfeit vote in the 5 minute match.
Just to elaborate on why the controller. The joystick allows all ranges of turning while keyboard controls allow for only turning at fully or not turning. Also, you should remap or double map the X key(power slide, air rotation) to be either a paddle (steam controller) or to one of the shoulder buttons you are comfortable with. The reason is eventually you will want to be able to apply a combination of X and Boost at the same time both in the ground and the air. Pushing two of the 4 face buttons (X, B by default) is not ideal in this situation given the way they combine. You may as well build this muscle memory now vs later.
Also most players especially in competitive jack the FOV up from 90 to 110 - this is going to give most people some serious fisheye at the start. However, when ball cam is active, on defense especially, the entire width of the field of play is visible at 110 but not at 90. It is a meaningful difference if 110 is playable to you.