Trying new things in normals

I duo w/ a friend of mine practically every night, but tonight a bunch of his irl friends logged on so he invited me to play w/ them. So there we are, 4 of us in Normals, and I say "screw it, I'm gonna play some Fiora." I haven't played her much since her rework, but I loved her before it, so I figured I would relearn her. I did horrid, like, complete shit. But I was trying some new stuff, so I wasn't too upset about it, I was just trying to improve at it. Apparently in their Skype call, my duo partners friends were pissed off at me for doin so bad. So, after 2 games, I stopped playing Fiora and went to Janna, a champ that I know pretty well. My first game with her I did well, but I realized I was playing too aggressive in lane. So, I figured that since we were still doin normals, I would try to play differently. For our next game I was apparently too passive, which I was. But anyways, too my point, I took the chance to play normal games as a chance to practice new things and improve as a player. My buddy's friends got overly pissed at me, to the point where it made them tilt. Should I have just went and picked more comfort picks, or was I ok to keep practicing new things?