Antimoon"3."You improve faster" I guess? I have never found improvement being rolled by someone whos 4 or 5 times better than my team. Someone whos slightly better or a division up? Yes. Being absolutely rolled? No."
If every team you play against is 4-5 times better than you're team, you're not ready to play in open.
Then where do you begin?
Not all potential players will go through the hassle that Marxist described and escape the "bad" part of open. Some just give up.
I'd be very interested in seeing stats about esea players : what % plays more than 2 seasons; what % escapes bottom half of open? etc