Probably TF2center lobbies but I'm a bit biased. Other than that, look for a team once you have the basics down.

Just to anyone who's about to post, this could either turn into a great thread of information we can pin and look back on or it could turn into an alpaca thread or something. You guys get to choose.

yeah any way i can choose what Div and Highlander/6s to go into

Iron hl is probably the lowest level of competitive tf2, it's a good place to start:

http://www.ugcleague.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?7-North-America

If you want to you could play in a higher div of hl or iron/steel 6s but i would suggest to start there.

If you're new to comp, best bet is to start with the lowest divisions. If you're obviously better than the people around you, move up next season.

Or take the plunge and play ESEA or CEVO open and you will improve 5x as fast

pub > pubstar > lobby > lobbystar > pugna > open > open > open > open > open 

if you follow my easy guide you can become just like me

For 6s/HL it's really your choice about what you get more excited about. 6s is a bit harder to break into but it's still fairly easy to get in at the low level. Whatever you do, try and meet players better than you and go over your demos with them. That will get you good the fastest.

I personally got in by becoming friends with people who were new to the competitive scene like I was and making a team with them and learning with them.

pub > pubstar > lobby > lobbystar > pugna > open > open > open > open > open 

I followed this guide and managed to get to a 6th open.

backup your way to invite

pub > pubstar > lobby > lobbystar > pugna > open > open > open > open > open 

I only got 3 opens before i gave up :s

pub > pubstar > lobby > lobbystar > pugna > open > open > open > open > open 

but on a serious note...

pub > pubstar > lobby > lobbystar > tf2mix > open > tf2mix star > bad pugna > high open > mediocre pugna > high open > im > good pugna > pugna star > high im > low invite > invite

This might sound like the stupidest shit ever but I'm going to mention it just in case.

Play 1 class that you main and try to focus on only learning that specific class.
I'm not saying you can't pub as other classes but rather that you shouldn't try to learn all classes at once at a competitive level.

Look at casts and focus on your specific class' role in your preferred game mode(s). Then try to apply it when playing in sites such as tf2center.com.

And once you've picked a class, try to find a mentor.

It starts with following what you want. I played 2fort pubs for almost 400 hours before thinking "Highlander would be fun with the people on my server. I want to play engineer."

That team fell through, so since I still wanted to get into competitive, I formed a team with friends for 6v6, and decided to learn medic. This was around the time of i46 with Classic Mixup, so I got to watch PYYYOUR and Shade a lot (mostly PYYYOUR).

Whatever class you want to play, look up some of the best players in that class. The My Gaming Edge series covers a lot of basics for things like 6v6, but I'm not familiar with anything for Highlander.

But Highlander is the easy part, almost any class at any lower levels aside from Demo doesn't need any set guidelines. You can try your own stuff. Find a team in UGC Iron/Steel (http://www.ugcleague.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?61-Highlander-Players-Looking-for-Teams), and that can be your start in the competitive world. From there, just go wherever your newly developed skills take you.

Until then, TF2Center is the only real option for playing with competitive players.

Also clorg's directions are pretty accurate.

With friends who are new just like you