Haven't tried player matches yet. Thought it would just be the same thing with just no rankings behind it.
Not quite. With ranked, you get one shot to beat whatever opponent you're paired up with and it's hard to learn what they did when you can't even afford to throw a round to learn their habits. This isn't a problem with player matches, since you can face the same people over and over and actually learn how your character's matchup plays against said person.