My bigger concern when playing friendlies with someone who is better than me that it is boring for them. This happens a lot
I'm really not a particularly good player but I have been on the other side of this exchange a few times, playing friendlies with people noticeably worse than I am. In all honesty I would -rather- be playing someone known/better than me to get the experience, but if I'm still sitting at the TV, then it means that I still find it worthwhile to be there. It's fun getting to try out new things without the pressure of "This is a known player who is better than me, I need to try my best to make sure I perform well enough to satisfy me."
Probably the most fun thing for me to do in that situation is to talk with whoever I'm playing, regardless of what it's about. If I feel like I can give advice, and they ask, I'll give it. It's particularly fun talking about my own thought process and comparing that to others'.
So basically what I'm saying is if you think you look like a total noob or are worried about boring your opponent, don't be. They'll let you know if they're bored by leaving the TV, and if you're not a known player, you've got no reputation to keep so looking like a noob doesn't mean anything, haha. Instead, ask for advice! If there's something that you can't figure out or you're having trouble with something specific, ask about it. At least in my case, getting to act all knowledgeable and cool to people is pretty damn fun and ego-stroking.
There are some unfortunate situations though. At Pound 5 I was playing someone who, after a few games, said that I was too far beyond his level for him to learn anything and left the TV. If you read this, sorry about that! I just try not to sandbag in friendlies against people I don't know, to show that I respect them as competitors and players. On the other end, I try to avoid TVs with two or more known players on them since they're usually practicing hard for bracket, or all know each other by virtue of being good at the game and at most nationals, and I'd rather not get in the way of that.
As for nervousness, I feel like I'm pretty lucky in that regard. When I play tournament matches, it seems like I just automatically pull away from the pressure on me and focus entirely on the game. For example, I was playing D1 in my pool at Pound 5 (can't remember if it was first or second round) and we were tied 1-1. I was up three stocks to one in game three. He adapted to me and started playing defensively in a way I couldn't figure out and ended up coming back to win, but at no point in the match did I ever think about possibly losing to that comeback. Losing my second and third stock didn't have any effect on my ability to play, they were just lost stocks and losing two stocks without taking one didn't register as being embarrassing or worthy of nervousness. It wasn't until a little while after the game that I realized I lost three stocks without taking one of his, and how embarrassing that could be.
I remember I wasn't nervous at my first two tournaments either, those being RoM2 and Pound 4, since I was terrible at the game and knew it, so I didn't have any expectations of myself to meet. The first tournament where I was ever really nervous was actually a tournament at my university--since at that point I was among the best players there, I had expectations that I had to hold up to, and that nervousness caused me to fail to do that. This persisted through two or three more tournaments like that, but ever since then I've gotten used to it and just sort of pull away from nervousness automatically.
edit: I do feel bad playing people when they ask for my name though. Everyone hears "Cobalt" as "Col Bol" the first time, and then I have to disappoint them if they don't already know what Col Bol looks like and thus know that I'm not him
