Can't Duo with Friend

Both my friend and I have not played a single placement on our main accounts. However, neither of us can invite the other to a duo queue. For me it says to invite someone between silver and platinum, and for him it says to invite someone between gold and diamond, so we should overlap and be able to invite each other, especially since technically neither of us are ranked now. Why can't we queue together? INeither of us had our season rewards taken away either.