here's how i got around the ranked battle dilemma:

talk to your friends or others in your group.

change your rank team to only have 1 team and not 3.

have your friends beat you to lower your rank.

then, they do the same thing you did, and you only fight 1 team instead of 3 in ranked

2 wins, easy

started at 9th, now im 25th, saved for the next time i have to do a ranked request