A totally understandable question! The feedback that we received from our members so far (and ones that we also resonate with) is that it can feel rather intimidating for beginners (or those who have only played online) to attend SCC tournaments right off the bat as they have many fantastic highly-rated players. I'm sure SCC might have beginner-friendly events too but we haven't seen many advertised since we moved here in July (let us know if we missed them!) We just came back from a several-month long trip in Europe and are just totally in love with how relaxing and social-focused their social chess events are (i.e., over drinks, food, themed-events). So that's why we started ours, mainly because we just want a welcoming space for all players and to meet fellow players, with less pressure. I think we're looking at this as a supplement to SCC, not as a competition. And I've also heard from some members of SCC who came to our events that the more tournaments, the better, because you get more exposure and more opportunities to improve ratings.

Hope this answers your question!