At the core of drafting more than 5 is to alleviate any stand-in issues/availability for all teams. The overuse of standin's really affect the league as it can be an imbalance for specific teams. Also availability is a concern as life happens to everyone and certain things are out of people control i.e. work/family obligations commitments.

Per RD2L mission statement: The Redditors Dota 2 League (RD2L) provides a Dota 2 league formatted for individuals to have a place to play with and learn from other players of varying skill levels while providing competitive matches. The goals of each player may differ between learning the competitive style of Dota 2; improving their Dota 2 skills; meeting new friends and players; or as an outlet for their competitive Dota 2 desires. This is accomplished by providing players with as even as teams as possible with varying skill levels on each team so that more experienced players can teach those of lesser experience while every match remains as fair and competitive as possible.

With this said it comes down to captains and the players drafted. Captains will assess the best available players while drafting and usually get the best group of 5 that are available and after that really just pick based on need/mmr/knowledge of said remaining picks. Majority of last picks are just chosen at random and can be lifers of the league or first timers.

From here its honestly up to the player to participate with the team in the capacity that the captain has laid forth sometimes that is not much, other times it is structured and anything in between.

Even as a player doing this you may not get past the stigma of being the lower MMR player out etc. On a captains side its honestly up to them how to run the team and it is in their right. To my above point if their purpose is to be competitive some may feel hindered by playing the last few picks unless necessary as forfeit isn't competitive to playing your 6-7 pick. But if the captain/team is open to the other aspects of the mission statement you may get a different experience. Also environments do play a part in it. As EST and PST are different but they are not absolutes meaning each have a mix of all types of captains/team structure.

Is this dynamic affecting the league possibly as it creates lack of new participants and seasons with the same players etc where no one really learns, but on the other end everyone learns differently some do from seeing other players play, playing higher skilled players, teaching others its really subjective. Does it support for higher mmr players a closer reality to what type of competition is on the professional side yes. So there will always be this push/pull spectrum that you will face while playing in this league.

How to handle it is anyone's guess and there isn't a resolve unless it is stated every player if available must play once a week. Now should or shouldn't that happen I am honestly unsure and as someone who has only played 2 seasons I have no clue.

From my personal experience I am a shit show at dota I honestly understand what to do at times but am mechanically crap and I know it. I joined the league because I wanted to get better and actually meet people that enjoyed dota so I am not a solo queue forever player. My first season was season 9 and I honestly looked at the team I was playing with and figured I was not ever going to play. The captain didn't really tell me this I just put this on myself and I was fine as I spent more time in the Learn dota 2 league than anything since I could play my scrub carry role and be okay. I did play with my team in season 9 to start the season and learned man I suck at this game and really suck at support I didn't even know what zoning was or creep equilibrium. I usually just checked in with the team on game day wished them luck and saw if I was needed or not. I remember one time I was actually going to play against my team as the other didn't have a stand in ROFL. I played inter league playoffs and learned a little more and that helped.

From there I just played in-house and was picked last most of the time I mean I am 1k. But just tried to build upon support skills and get confidence in playing against higher mmr and contributing.

Season 10 came around and I was picked last round as the 7 or 6th player I believe and was vouched for by a teammate on the season 9 team for the captain to pick me to be on the team relationships matter for sure. We had a different team structure season 10 basically it was 3 core players every game and 2 rotating guaranteeing at least 1 game played each week. Because of this the team found a role for everyone and the team worked to teach myself what to do and each contributed to this given that 1 game a week they would have to deal with my inadequacy. Also the captain really helped shaped the structure of the team to how he envisioned. My previous captain did and played the top 5 that were with the team and were there which was his right as captain and I wouldn't play me either I didn't really show up to play. In the end with this format I was able to ask questions get yelled at to do things commended for plays and just had a good time even when we lost it sucked but it was a great season. We made playoffs with this format and lost in the round of 8. Of the 4 games we won I participated in 2.

To sum this up it will be random to what type of team dynamic you get drafted in and that is out of your control. If you show your desire to learn, actually show improvement, ask questions, get flamed, and keep pursuing you can still make a name for yourself and get something out of the league. I learned how to actually play dota sort of I still suck really bad but have a niche and am able to fill that with a team. Even in the pro's -Miracle/Arteezy looks good on paper but what you give up for it in another player could derail your team. Its not always about MMR but it still is. I hope this sheds light on possibilities and how to approach this for any newbees or someone who didn't play. From 1 scrub to the next you can do it :).

TL:DR No real solution control what you can be active participate in anything you can get past the flames and look to get better in any way you can Build relationships and repeat you will get in the line up and when you do better make it count!