I would love it if all the UGC teams moved to ESEA, but it's unrealistic.

There are a lot of practical reasons newer UGC teams don't move to open. As long as there is an alternative to ESEA I don't see enough of these teams moving from UGC to ESEA to matter. That means the best place for absolute newbies to start out is UGC, unless you have enough newbie mixes to know the basics (but then you aren't a newbie any more, really).

I like that tftv has been more inclusive of lower level players recently. But the current LFT board isn't for them, and it's something they only discover after posting there and getting redirected to UGC. If we had a separate board for them, they might not feel like tftv is a super secret club only ESEA players can join. It's also easier on team leaders of both leagues.

In an ideal world, this would be true. But it's not.

I am going to assume that these hypothetical new players are already dedicated and will want to play in Open. Forget the UGC lifers and the exclusively HL players, because they aren't who we want to reach.

Teams and players grow best and have the most fun when they play other teams of similar skill.
No one learns anything from a five minute roll.

Anyone who has played in Open can attest that the skill level of teams in the division varies wildly, and that no effort is made to match teams of similar skill against each other for the first FOUR WEEKS. That's half a season!
Additionally, you can't create a team in any division other than Open, so there are teams there that should be playing in IM or Invite (6cuties anyone?). You can't tell me that ESEA will care enough to put in the time and change this with even triple or quadruple the number of teams playing (which would put us on par with the 160 teams in CS open). These numbers COULD be possible, as there were about 60 teams in Steel that survived last season and if we extrapolate that to Iron and Silver joining Open then we would quadruple (this is unrealistic however).

Last season, the low open teams that survived were about UGC Silver/Gold level. The average committed player needs at minimum one full season to play at this level.

It is unusual for new players to start out with this much 6s skill/experience without playing on a team, and it's also unusual for low open players to stick around or even get on another team after having a disastrous season.
It takes an unusual player (either in skill or in temperament or with experienced friends) to start off in Open and stay there. These people are the exception, not the rule!

No one wants players leaving comp because they don't believe that they're good enough.
You can't tell me that the majority of newbies who post in the LFT forum - who don't even notice that the other posts are for experienced players looking in ESEA - are the unusual player who could survive their first season getting 0-16'd open and want to come back the next. It may be elitist to tell them up front to try UGC first, but it's also honest and much kinder.

That is why tftv should have separate UGC and ESEA recruitment sections.

I had no idea when these were and that they were so low commitment. Now that I know they're free to enter and that they only last one day, I'm interested.

We certainly need better advertising for them on tftv. If not on the sidebar, then maybe on the front page?
If anything, this is the kind of thing worthy of an exception.

I got to ring for park's team a while back and can confirm he's a chill and responsible guy with more than enough ability for low open pocket or roamer. This is roughly his second season AND he scrimmed quite a bit in the offseason on his team that kind of died right before the deadline, so he's pretty experienced for someone who would be happy with low open. I expect him to be solidly mid open by season's end, especially if he works on his maincalling.

If you are a leader, you should try him out.

If you are a med or a scout lft you should message him and tell him to revive his team already.

I got to play with citrous' team for several scrims before it died. He is chill, dedicated, and can take a loss. He is a solid pickup on roamer for your low open team and has what it takes to get better and not kill your team in the low open pit of despair. He will need some work if you want to put him on pocket and have him maincall, but I believe he could learn over the course of the season if needed. His DM is decent too, but I am a med main and get wrecked in mge by most people so all I can say is he has what he needs to get the job done.
He's also responsible enough to run a team and get to scrims on time, a fact all those schedulers out there I'm sure will love. I am pretty sure he didn't kill his team.

tldr: solid choice for low open, decent choice for mid open if you don't need to have him maincall.

On the other hand, there are always a couple of teams made to save ESEA last minute and demos are always in short supply. Be ready to pay league fees on short notice! (But don't before you are actually on a team, ESEA hates chargebacks.)

If you haven't contacted them already, there are still a couple teams looking for low open demo tryouts on the lfp forum. Don't give up hope quite yet!

Looking for S20!

I'm going to be gone for most of this week, so hit me up Friday the 17th or after.

The OP has been nothing but polite and has gotten nothing but nice answers.
What kind of internet troll tricks people into being kind and thoughtful on the internet?

"I will politely trick all these internet scrubs into nicely answering a question for me. u not mad?" - said no troll ever

Is it gauche to bump your own thread, after bumping your own thread?

I've pugged / played with everyone here and can confirm this is a chill team of chill gamers. They've played together for several seasons, and are still together, so they definitely have something good going on.

Also Salpal saved my team last season, which is worth all the good person points.

Still looking.

Pugged with him a couple times, totally outplayed me on scout. :P

But seriously how often do you get to pick up a scout combo, one that probably works together? Nice guy with solid DM and things that are more important than DM. Especially the things you want on your team. Those things. Yes.

Good attitude and pretty chatty for a scout, which is not something you always see. Deserves to main.

Rang demo for our team once last season. Good attitude, cool headed and polite. I would ring him again.

Managed to survive low open and still wants to play TF2.