SimbaDrHappinessIn my experience as someone who is down to pug/mix but is a washed middie at best, most of the 'popular' places to pug that are created eventually become the same circlejerks of Top Mid to D1 players who all know one another and generally result in quite cringy pugs in general.
Feel like this is the biggest issue that pugs face. If there isnt a healthy stream of new (not in skill level but new to the website) players because captains always play the same faces, and god forbids if they decide to pick someone new theres an uproar in mumble, then you might as well just create a discord server to mix.
Speaking as someone who gets fatkidded all the time. I never managed to play in Pugchamp because of this and tf2.online is going the same path. If you have no weight to your name, you wont play, and queueing for medic wont save you even tho thats what everyone complains thats lacking.
Pretty much this plus what #38 was saying. Anyone who wants pugs to stay alive are the people who will always be picked, as they get to play the most. The 40% of people who don't get picked and are just expected to wait to fill in for one slot for the next game in 40 mins that they might not even get in it aren't going to hang around. For an idea into the numbers, you get 20 people added, 12 picked so 8 leftover (that's 40% of people not picked). Then those 4 leave and a new 4 join over the course of the next 40 mins as the A pug is going on. Usually a B pug is triggered but doesn't start due to people going afk or doing something else since they don't sit and stare at the website for 40 mins doing nothing else. Then the A pug ends and the same 12 players get picked as they are the better 12 players or they are friends with the captain, and the cycle repeats.
An anonymous mix system is a lot better for the longevity of the site, but it results in lower game quality which would result in it being filled with much lower skilled players as better players tend not to have fun just styling on worse players.
If people really want higher quality games they should go look for 5 other guys they enjoy playing with and try to find other mix teams to play against, or even real teams. Not scrims, just mix games, can play any classes or whatever and change each map but it eliminates so many of the problems of toxicity and waiting. It is more effort but it pays off with higher quality and more enjoyable games. Ofc noone really wants to put in the effort, they just want it done for them (for example, the premise of this thread) but the solutions are there if people wanted to try.