Is honor level zero its own level, or is it just the level it displays while honor is locked?

If you get sufficiently punished, you get knocked down to honor level 0 AND your honor progress gets locked.

You have to play X amount of games in good form to unlock it and start gaining honor points again, but when you DO unlock it, is it still at level zero?

If it is, then you basically have to ascend two honor levels before you can even try to earn keys again...

So basically, because I tend to stop playing once I get sufficiently tilted, I'll be stuck playing for months and months and months before I can even TRY to get my third key fragment. I'll be sitting on two pieces for probably close to a year, with that frustrating me, on top of feeling like a detriment to my teams for not being a good player, AND having the threat of a permanent ban looming over me. All at once.

Like, how am I even supposed to try and have fun when I have all that extra baggage to consider when playing?