Hey there, I'm going to take off the admin hat and speak from the heart.
You raise a lot of valid concerns. I agree that we can always do better because I want CL to always be better. I'll go through as much as you posted, as well as address any other concerns that people in the comments have.
The highest tier NA league has been dysfunctional and doesn't draw a crowd.
I think there are many reasons for this. The chief one is that the viewerbase of CL Matches are (surprise), members of CompeteLeague. This is why that Gold & Platinum, as well as Bronze & Silver, historically draw the largest crowds. That was great for when we were first rebooting ourselves last season, but I agree, it is something that CompeteLeague needs to expand beyond.
So Protroid, a hypothetical person asks. Why not focus extensively on outreach?
I want to. We all want to, but a few things get in the way. Money is the first one (what a shock), but another is growing pains.
None of us expected HouseParty to explode in the way it did. We wanted to focus Season 2 on refining the systems that we currently have and trying to increase overall professionalism. When we had to welcome a huge influx of new players, as well as continued issues with Riot's API that postponed the start of Season 2 on its own, we had to focus on ensuring that all the teams that were joining could enter smoothly. I spent two or so weeks trying to ensure that HouseParty members could transition nicely into CL, as well as bring some of their more prominent teams into our Premier League. It was fantastic, and I loved meeting so many new players and answering questions about CL in general, but it also took time away from some of the other expansion efforts we had going on behind the scenes.
The website hasn't functioned correctly since day 1 in many regards, and feels incredibly unpolished to view as a 'user'
Ho boy, the website. First and foremost, sadly not all of those issues are our own. Riot re-worked some of their API stuff recently and we have been trying to update things as effectively as we can. That isn't meant to be an excuse, and also doesn't cover every issue you presented, but I figured it is something important to mention.
To a user, the website looks unpolished. I cannot dispute that. I am embarrassed that one of the first impressions of CL that someone gets is through our website. That being said, /u/mindmesser has already hinted towards expanding and improving the website several times, which is a project that I have been working on alongside other members of our staff. We still aren't ready to talk more about what is going on with that. But I can confirm that it is an improvement head and shoulders above what is currently available.
A seemingly lacking desire to expand
We gained a huge influx of new staff members at the start of Season 2, to the point where we had to move from a Skype group to a more organized Slack group to better manage our volunteer staff (which now numbers more than 100 people, wow!). We have been working to ensure that we can manage this many people. It is a bit of a process, but I think that we are progressing well.
It is at this point I want to apologize to you personally. There is no excuse for not getting back to the people that want to help. If you still are interested in working with CL, please email [email protected] and send me a PM when you do so I can ensure that I personally can process your application.
I am going to hang out in the comments here to answer any questions. I'm sorry that we have presented ourselves in such a negative way, and I hope to regain your trust.