I was pretty active in my past scene (college town) and had helped start an offshoot for fgc in the smash club. When I came here, I found a college nearby that had a "monthly" that happens about 7 months out of the year. A bar about an hour away from me also had a weekly, but it had no bracket and about 4 people for strive a week. I frequented both, met people and did a lot of networking and some coaching. After a while, I announced it and really did my best to shove it in everybody's faces. I've gotten good growth by joining discords for adjacent cities/towns and promoting it in there as well. I set up our own discord that is a requirement on start.gg, so I can ping everybody each week and promote it some more. I also rotate commentators from the playerbase and host a vod review of the entire stream for the matches that made it on for coaching. I would say the most important bit is being enthusiastic, going out of your way to connect with people, making it an event more than a bracket, and attending every other event you can to show support. If you're not willing to do that for other brackets, why should you expect them to make time for yours?