Live Arena is frustrating and that's understandable, but ive learned to just take my losses. Though the individuals speaking on "Effort" need to sit down. Who are you to speak on anyone else's Effort put into it? I understand that people are quick to complain about things we may see as common, or part of the ride. 

I've been playing right at a year and have been unemployed the entire time, so believe me when I say I spend 8-10 hours a day playing raid, sometimes more. I spend around 40 bucks a month, mostly on energy so not entirely ftp, so "Effort" is definitely not an issue. In this time I've acquired 11 legendary champions and half of those were freebies or login champs. I still do what I can and make it work but as someone who has spent the amount of time I have, not even talking funds cause I know it's not much on the scale of things. Though when I get to any arena battle, whether it's live, classic, or 3v3 I'm reminded how far I am from a legit arena team. I know a year isn't crazy but when you're playing the hours I am then it seems like things should be progressing different.

It's more about alignment of individual expectations with effort.  

Being early game, yes I think most a year in are still early game, pvp beyond classic arena is going to be challenging. 

Most, not all, expect to keep progressing at a linear pace. Unfortunately, the game is designed intentionally otherwise. 3v3 will be the primary barrier for most, and will require significant "effort".

Effort being a combination of time, money, trial & error etc.

Live is simply suck it up and do 10 battles a day to float to gold with the point inflation that exists in the system.