I feel like a big thing limiting the influx of players to comp. TF2 is the elitism and toxic attitude players are met with by veterans.
-TF2center is the most popular medium between pubs and competitive
Everyone needs to stop stacking lobbies, stop screaming at the 0 lobby/500 hour medic for making your 30 minute experience worse.
How can we expect numbers to grow if people keep leaving the scene and we are ridiculing people for even ATTEMPTING to get into competitive?
I heavily go on /r/truetf2 and the amount of posts/comments made weekly about trying competitive after seeing a stream/video and getting shot down is ridiculous. The ONLY way this game can keep going is to have a great place for new players to join.
Events like the highlander open, EVL battle royale, etc, are things we should strive to have more of. Newbie mixes are great, I understand it's hard, but we have to put in the effort if we want this game to keep going.
The least anyone can do if you don't want to coach/advertise about comp. TF2 is not have a shitty attitude when it comes to new players in lobbies.