How do players get into team league, eh? A varied topic, I'm sure. I got into it thanks to joining an unexpected tourney that needed a 6th player,

http://www.teamleague.org/board.php?page=board&action=topicshow&forumid=1393&forum=T68&topic=Between+the+Seasons+Invitations+RoundRobin+Tourney&topicid=1424

(I was the only player that did not expect the tourney :) ). After a very good post mortem with someone who clearly knew a lot more about chess and magnanimity than I did, I became motivated to look for other options and then, only then, did I notice team league, and I immediately put my name on the interested list and that was that.

One suggestion based on my experience above is a "big Open" tourney that is open to all, yet advertising TL while we're at it. I have spent 30 seconds on that idea and have not looked up the history of standard tourneys on FICS, so caveat emptor on that one (I did play many 45 5 Sunday tourneys back in the day, which were nice enough but never "big").

However, I am not posting this to promote that particular idea. I am mostly interested in reading the experiences of others regarding how they got in here, rather than suggest "the answer".

Interesting. I'd be curious how many people just saw it advertised on FICS and joined vs invited from elsewhere. For my part, I joined when people on a mutual forum joined... (and now have been less available to play given those people stopped playing and lack of time otherwise...)

My team (FlamingPhoenixFighters) is exclusively recruiting players who have played multiple games against a current member. When I joined the league, Nightfury invited me and I played a "testing game" against a stronger player of the team.

This procedure is not very effective (regarding the amount of new players), therefore most members stays for several seasons and the team has no history of abuse.

I like the idea to advertise Teamleague on the FICS news and to organize a long time control open in order to recruit new opponents.
Nonetheless, we should not forget, that it is not just doing one tourney and that is it. New players have to be properly introduced to the league and we have to make sure that computer cheater wont enter the league, otherwise the players might decrease instead of increase.

Best regards
schachbjm

I have some suggestions that I'd like to share. I won't be doing that now, to throw with too little time atm. I've been unreasonably busy the past year-and-a-half, but i'll be moving somewhere quiter next week. I look forward to reconnecting with old friends. I'll share some recruitment techniques soon, I expect to use them in real time if all goes well.

All I can say for now is, be careful listening to Josh.. who knows what he'll drag you into..... it could change your life.