First of all, you just indirectly gave birth to what seems to be one of the most hilarious and accurate nicknames for an NA admin and one especially named Ganner. He apparently "processes" 70% of the bans that are made and requested in NA.
Secondly, new players usually don't get banned for more than a couple of hours where they are urged to read up on official server rules. In this case, I assume you were banned for leeching which is basically not contributing to your team and usually something like going AFK, like your friend did. As I said, despair not the ban is not permanent and most likely will be lifted as soon as an admin has confirmed that you read and understood the official server rules.
However, if the ban took place on a community driven server then most likely you are permanently banned as they tend to be less forgiving, despite you being new.