pl3xYou should start a new thread or edit this one with a little more info in the OP, such as:
1. How exactly would one take part? Is there an organizational steam group or website?
2. When will the mixes be taking place?
3. What exactly is special about "newbie" mixes and how does the coaching system work?
4. Who should I contact to get involved?
etc
Just some FAQs that might pop up - there are probably more questions that people have that should be answered, but this is a start :/
you have a good point. because we are only recently starting these back up we just wanted to have a few weeks in "trial" stages where we sort out what works and what doesn't. a more formal announcement/thread should crop up in the following weeks made by either pie_hero or one of the other admins
for now though, I'll try to answer your questions here:
1) steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/na6v6newbiemix announcements are posted to the steam group when mixes are going live
2) every friday night at 9 edt
3) instead of a standard pug picking system (captains, random, etc), newbie mix teams are hand-picked by an admin to ensure that teams will be as balanced as possible. in mumble, newbies can add up to three different categories of experience level: novice, beginner, and experienced. an admin would try to make teams that have the same amount of same experienced newbies on the same team, or, optimally, two teams of the same experienced level.
each team has a coach, a player that has at least one season of ESEA experience, who is skilled enough to teach newbies the basics to 6v6 TF2. the coach should be experienced and be able to explain things simply enough so a newbie would understand the explanation. before the game, coaches get to know the group they got and make sure everyone understands some quick basics about competitive play, and also understands how a few midfights work. coaches should give quick critiques to their newbies throughout the game, and explain to them more indepth after the game is over (if the newbie wants).
basically, newbie mixes aren't a place to pug, but a place to learn, and should be treated as such.
4) you don't need to contact anyone to play - join the group, jump in mumble, get drafted, and play a mix. but if you have any questions at all about the mix system or if you belong or if you have something you wanna tell an admin, talk to pie_hero, Tino_, griff, valkeri, or myself, alosec
thanks for asking these questions, they were really good questions. like I said, in the future, there will be a much more formal central post for all of this information, but for now, we just want to get the word out and the newbies in to make sure we have a solid system.