[satchel]

The concept of ‘lower-tier’ leagues grooming owners for the more established ones is already the de facto system in the community. It’s not formal, but that’s how it usually works, since it’s easier for a new community member to join one of these newer leagues. From there they learn the system and get to know other OotPers, and eventually join more ‘prominent’ leagues. A couple of differences between this and a more rigid system is that the status of the lower-tier leagues is not fixed, and newer leagues can rise in prominence; and that owners who move on to new leagues don’t necessarily leave their old ones. So the leagues on the fringe do train owners for the core leagues, and give them access to the process and community, there just isn’t a standardized way to graduate to the ‘bigs’ (and that’s not even many owners’ intent anyway).

I’m not promoting the idea of league hierarchy, but some leagues do appear more stable than others, and their members are more easily recognizable.