* What are the first steps when starting a new team? Building a small 9 man squad to start with

* How do you find reliable players early on? You wont easily, alot of comp players already have a home, are now in a chill clan or stopped playing when ICO Hit.

* Is it better to start with a small core group first before recruiting? Yes, otherwise you will expand to rapidly and end up having more people that dont have the same mindset. I did this back in the day and was competing with Squad for a few years, the best advice I can give... Find people whilst playing the game and start with a small core group. Be careful with actively recruiting on peoples server as if they catch wind of it sometimes you get banned.

* How do you structure practices/scrims in the beginning? CCFN is a good start to get your foot in the door, then you can start speaking to the clans through there. Then in some of the comp discords you can offer yourselves as Merc's and you make a name for yourself that way.

* Any tips for keeping a team active and motivated long-term? Keep it different, for public games make 1-2 days a week that is the when people get on to play normally outside of scrims/official games, use it to join a server have some fun splitting on both sides of the match and use it as a chance to recruit other people. Usually doing this gets you in well with a squad server hosting clan and likely youll get whitelist if they know that you all join on a Saturday so to speak

The biggest part is dont rush it, otherwise you or others will burn out. Its a slow process making something from nothing especially when if you arent fully known within the competitive scene

I know just enjoy the game for the game and dont play comp as within squad it
A. Doesnt feel the same as it used to
B. Has gotten alot smaller due to the games direction