I suggest that instead of trying to have the competitive application separate from the game application it would be more user friendly instead to consolidate the two into a single application in game. This would be a feature that would allow players, teams, and clans to search for, join, and create their own tournaments and schedule skirmishes within the game.
What I propose is that the 'WANTED' button on the main menu is replaced with 'THE SKIES' or another thematically appropriate name. What this button leads to, instead of only the 'WANTED' mini-game, is an entire page dedicated to tournaments, automated mini-games, and organised skirmishes. Here anyone can set up, advertise, update, sign up, and watch the live feed of tournaments and the rankings of the teams participating in them.
Everything needs to be on one page for both convenience, but also to keep a clear line between the competitive scene and the casual scene. Another benefit of having everything on a single page is that it will assist in introducing casual players gradually to each element of the competitive scene without overwhelming them.
This is done first by encouraging a player to join the flexible 'WANTED' mini-game. Here players can participate in a competitive mini-game but at their own pace and never feeling crushed by the weight of schedules and strict rules.
From there the player would be encouraged to join one of the established clans or an up-and-coming one by seeing a live feed of how each clan is doing on the latest tournament ladder or season. Once in a clan they could participate in clan vs clan skirmishes and get introduced to the deeper strategies and tactics of Guns of Icarus.
Eventually that player would graduate into participating in minor tournaments with their clan or go for glory in the official 'Grand Tournament' season and climatic grand finale.
This way players not normally predisposed for the competitive scene could be slowly introduced to each element and they could find themselves going further than they normally would have before.
For the layout I would suggest that front and centre would be the main feature, the 'Grand Tournament' circuit. This would host Guns of Icarus' official season and grand finale and it could easily be set up and maintained by the many Community Ambassadors and Mods that Muse has supporting them.
A simple set up would be to have something as regular as weekly skirmishes throughout the season and award points to the victorious clans and at the end of the season invite the clans that have won the most amount of points to the grand finale tournament.
Underneath, would be a list of the minor tournaments created by the community and hosted by whatever clan created said tournament. There would not need to be any fancy features required for this system to work and every feature would only be usable by the clan 'Leaders' and 'Officers'. A team can easily apply for a tournament as a clan and the host clan can accept or deny their application. The host clan will need to have the ability to set up a variety of different ladder trees, a page where they can post the rules and schedule, and an editor for them to manually update the scores and ladder positions. I believe that manual control and supervision is important as it encourages the host clan to not take their responsibilities lightly and to ignore or exploit any tournament they create lest the participators and community turn on them. In time more features could be added, like pre-defined map rotations, limited ship selection, or different game modes like VIP.
Off to one side would be a selection of automated mini-games starting with "WANTED". In time more or these simple and automated games should be added to encourage new players to participate more in Guns of Icarus' competitive scene and to push their skills harder.
Also on the side too would be a place for clans to challenge, advertise, and sign up to simple clan skirmishes at an agreed time. Nothing fancy here as this would simply be a place for regulars to look for more challenging organised battles than what 'Matchmaker' currently has to offer.
Finally all of this can be tied into the game's in game clock and calendar so that a player can keep track of all the skirmishes and tournaments that they or their clan are participating in or just the ones that they would like to keep up to date with. As for people who would just like to watch and not participate, they would have the option to mark any event so that they could also be reminded to while they are in game.
I believe that this would be the best way to consolidate all of Guns of Icarus' features and to make the competitive scene more friendly to casual players and simplify the current model.
