SCL identity crisis-

SCL is at its roots, a grassroots league. This hasn't really been done before in other "e-sports" very often if ever.
For example, most tournaments that are grassroots(meaning everyone and anyone could technically win an event and everyone gets to participate) or nearly always held in a single or double elimination format. Super Smash Bros. Melee is the biggest grassroots e-sports scene atm.
League e-sports(Rocket League, LoL, DoTA) are extremely selective in who gets to play at the top. Only a few select teams "get in" to the league and usually the new teams that get in have to go through a very long process to prove themselves as one of the elite in order to join one of these leagues.
In my opinion, SCL is trying to do both decently when it should really only be doing one well. We're trying to have to eliteness of league esports with having Diamond and other rankings but still let every person play if they want to play.
The discord discussion recently has seen players from both viewpoints pulling at which way SpyParty should go-more towards the league side and eliteness vs. grassroots.
Is the game SpyParty ready for such a change into an elite format like that?
Personally, I don't think so. SpyParty is still such a small community, with 100 or so players competing in SCL this season. I just don't think we're big enough to justify having even more of an "elite" group you have to join to basically play the game at a high level. I personally would hate to shut people out of joining a league because it's too elite.
What I would like to see going forward is changes that benefit grassroots; everyone that wants to play the game at a high/competitive level can do so. I'm not saying we should try and take away any competitiveness, but formats where everyone gets to play while retaining that competitiveness should be looked at more then inclusive league changes.
TLDR: focus on growing the game more with grassroots changes and letting everyone play vs. potentially risk losing players due to the league format being too elite.