How to join an esports team

Last updated 29 September 2026

"Joining an esports team" sounds like a tryout at a pro organisation. For almost everyone it means something smaller and much easier to find: four other players at your rank who show up on the same night each week and play their game's team tournament together.

Most guides to this are careers pieces. They tell you to practise, stream and network, and never name the tournament you'd actually play. This one does. It covers what a team below pro level is, which roles teams are short of, what each game's team format asks of your account, how to find a team and get through its tryout, and how the amateur ladders lead to pro play.

In short

Almost every esports team you can join is an amateur team playing its game's own team tournament (Valorant Premier, League of Legends Clash, the Dota 2 Battle Cup, Siege Cup) or a league such as ESEA, plus scrims.

Get your account eligible first, and offer the role teams are short of.

Post your rank, role and hours, then answer group posts. Players have posted about ten times as often as groups on TeamTavern, so waiting to be found is the slow route.

Pro teams recruit from the top of these same ladders, and only a few teams per region go up each year.

What an esports team is below pro level

An amateur esports team is a group of five players (three in Apex Legends, six or nine in Team Fortress 2) that plays together on a fixed schedule, in its game's team tournament, in a league, or in scrims. Scrims are practice matches against another team, arranged between the two teams.

Teams come in three kinds:

A ranked stack queues together for ranked play. It's the loosest kind of team.
A tournament team enters its game's own team tournament, such as Premier, Clash or the Battle Cup, and plays the weekends or weeks that tournament runs.
A league roster signs up for a season of a league such as ESEA or ETF2L with a named lineup, and scrims between its matches.

How many groups want competitive play depends on the game. Among group posts on TeamTavern, the share that ticks "Scrims and tournaments" is 63% in League of Legends, 60% in Dota 2, 54% in Counter-Strike 2, 48% in Valorant, 41% in Rainbow Six Siege, 35% in Apex Legends and 21% in Overwatch (TeamTavern's posts, 2019–2026, counted 29 September 2026). In League or Dota, a group that wants to compete is the usual case. In Overwatch it's the exception: four groups in five don't ask for it.

Pick one game and one role, ideally one teams are short of

Teams recruit to fill a gap in their roster, not for a good player in general. A group of four needs a fifth who plays the role they're missing, so the role you offer changes how many groups want you.

TeamTavern's posts show which roles those are. For each role, the chart sets the share of group posts asking for it against the share of player posts offering it. Where a role's "Groups asking" figure is higher than its "Players offering" figure, groups ask for it more often than players offer it.

Groups asking for each role, against players offering itShare of posts naming each role, among the posts that answer the role question. TeamTavern's posts, 2019–2026, counted 29 September 2026.

Counter-Strike 2 120 groups, 849 players

Entry fragger: Groups asking: 68%; Players offering: 46%
Rifler: Groups asking: 83%; Players offering: 79%
AWPer: Groups asking: 66%; Players offering: 50%
Lurker: Groups asking: 63%; Players offering: 39%
Support: Groups asking: 68%; Players offering: 38%

Dota 2 222 groups, 3,014 players

Carry (1): Groups asking: 65%; Players offering: 51%
Mid (2): Groups asking: 67%; Players offering: 40%
Offlane (3): Groups asking: 70%; Players offering: 49%
Soft support (4): Groups asking: 71%; Players offering: 58%
Hard support (5): Groups asking: 68%; Players offering: 48%

League of Legends 290 groups, 3,493 players

Top: Groups asking: 58%; Players offering: 35%
Jungle: Groups asking: 57%; Players offering: 38%
Mid: Groups asking: 50%; Players offering: 42%
ADC: Groups asking: 46%; Players offering: 41%
Support: Groups asking: 48%; Players offering: 48%

Rainbow Six Siege 50 groups, 553 players

Entry: Groups asking: 82%; Players offering: 71%
Support: Groups asking: 86%; Players offering: 87%
Roamer: Groups asking: 80%; Players offering: 70%
Anchor: Groups asking: 78%; Players offering: 63%

Overwatch 189 groups, 2,522 players

Tank: Groups asking: 43%; Players offering: 41%
DPS: Groups asking: 54%; Players offering: 47%
Support: Groups asking: 71%; Players offering: 70%

What the chart shows, game by game:

Counter-Strike 2: 68% of groups ask for a support player, and 38% of players offer to play one. Lurker and entry fragger are short too. Rifler is nearly level, at 83% against 79%.
Dota 2: every position is asked for more often than it's offered, and mid is the scarcest, at 67% against 40%.
League of Legends: top (58% against 35%) and jungle (57% against 38%) are short, and support is level.
Rainbow Six Siege: anchor has the widest gap, 78% against 63%, though from only 50 group posts.
Overwatch: the gaps are small: DPS at 54% against 47%, tank at 43% against 41% and support at 71% against 70%. The role you offer matters less there than in the other games.

If you play a short role well, lead your post with it. If you can make the calls, say that too: Valorant, Counter-Strike 2, Siege and Apex posts on TeamTavern have an "In-game leader" question, and groups answer it when they want one.

The shares don't add up to 100%, because a post can name several roles. Posts from before the site's 2026 relaunch were carried over by matching their old answers to the new questions. Valorant is left out of the chart, because its roles didn't carry over whole, and so is Counter-Strike 2's anchor, a role no post has named yet.

Make your account eligible

Most team formats set a bar for your account, and some cost money. Check yours before you look for a team, because a team can't enter with a player who doesn't qualify.

Format	What it asks of you	When it runs
Valorant: Premier, 5–7 players	SMS verification, one ranked placement ever, and no current bans or restrictions	Stages of 7 weeks, up to 2 matches a week, then playoffs
League of Legends: Clash, 5 players	Level 30, ranked placements this year or last, SMS on a mobile number, and a ticket each, for Blue Essence or RP or from the Clash mission	12 weekends in 2026
Dota 2: Battle Cup, 5 players	Dota Plus, or a $0.99 ticket	Weekly
Overwatch: FACEIT open qualifier, 5 players	–	At the start of each OWCS season, in NA and EMEA
Counter-Strike 2: ESEA, 5 players	–	Seasons
Apex Legends: ALGS Challenger Circuit, 3 players	–	Open tournaments in each split
Rainbow Six Siege: Siege Cup, 5 players	The paid game, not free access	–
Rainbow Six Siege: Challenger Series, 5 players	–	Open qualifiers, February to March in 2026
Team Fortress 2: ETF2L, 6 or 9 players	For the Fresh division, no more than 10 ETF2L Open matches, among other limits	Seasons

A dash means the organiser's own page doesn't say, so check its rules before you sign up.

Your game's team format

Valorant: Premier

Premier is Valorant's own team mode. You create or join a team in the Premier tab of the client, and Riot's team rules allow five to seven players. There's nothing to sign up for in advance: a team can start at any point in a Stage. By Riot's rules for joining a team, a Stage runs seven weeks of up to two matches a week, plus a playoff week for the teams that make it, and once a team has played its first match, nobody can join whose MMR would move the team up or down a division. So join before the team's first match, or pick a team whose rank is close to yours.

Premier's divisions run Open, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite, each in five steps, then Contender and Invite, and a team moves up by winning its division's playoff bracket. The top teams of each Invite division can earn a place in a Challengers league.

Valorant players and groups on TeamTavern

League of Legends: Clash

Clash is League's weekend tournament for teams of five, and Riot's Clash FAQ lists twelve cups for 2026, alternating Summoner's Rift and ARAM. Each bracket is eight teams, single elimination, against teams of about the same strength; a team's tier comes from its players' ranks, weighted toward its best player. You need level 30, placements in a Summoner's Rift ranked queue this year or last, SMS verification on a mobile number, and a ticket.

Clash doesn't lead to pro play. Teams that want more than Clash play scrims and third-party leagues.

League of Legends players and groups on TeamTavern

Dota 2: Battle Cup

The Battle Cup is Dota 2's weekly tournament for teams of five. It's free for Dota Plus members, and anyone else can buy a ticket for $0.99. Dota 2 posts on TeamTavern have "Battle Cup" as an answer to "Looking for", so a group that wants a Battle Cup fifth can say so.

Dota 2 players and groups on TeamTavern

Overwatch

Overwatch has no in-game group finder, so teams form outside the game. The open path to the top runs through FACEIT. Under Blizzard's OWCS rules, each season in North America and EMEA starts with an open qualifier there, and between stages the top two teams of the FACEIT League Master Division play the bottom two OWCS teams for their places.

Overwatch players and groups on TeamTavern

Counter-Strike 2

Premier in Counter-Strike 2 is a ranked mode you queue for, not a team format. Teams play leagues instead, and the one with a set way up is ESEA. It runs from Open through Entry, Intermediate and Main to Advanced, and since ESEA's rework in November 2025 its upper divisions count toward the Valve Regional Standings (VRS), the ranking Valve invites teams from. Each season the top two teams in Europe and in North America are invited to ESL Challenger League. The Majors fill their places by invitation from the VRS, as Valve's Major rulebook sets out, after Valve cancelled the regional qualifiers in 2025.

Counter-Strike 2 players and groups on TeamTavern

Apex Legends

Apex teams are trios. The ALGS Challenger Circuit is the open way in: entry is open, and each of its tournaments takes up to 1,280 teams per region. In the year's first split the Circuit leads to the Pro League Qualifier, and in the second to the Last Chance Qualifier. The Pro League itself has 30 teams per region.

Apex Legends players and groups on TeamTavern

Rainbow Six Siege

Siege Cup is Siege's tournament for five-stacks, inside the game. Since Siege X in June 2025 the game has free access, but Ranked and Siege Cup need the paid game. The way up is the Challenger Series: open qualifiers on Challengermode that teams of any level can enter, where both teams in each region's grand final qualify for that region's league.

Rainbow Six Siege players and groups on TeamTavern

Team Fortress 2

Competitive Team Fortress 2 is played in leagues: ETF2L in Europe and RGL in North America, in 6v6 and in Highlander, nine a side. ETF2L's 6v6 has a Fresh division for players who are new to it, beside Open, Low, Mid, High and Premiership. Mann Up, Mann vs. Machine on Valve's servers, is players against robots, not a competitive format.

Team Fortress 2 players and groups on TeamTavern

Find a team: post, then answer posts

Put up a player post that gives your rank, your role, whether you can lead, your region, your languages and the hours you're online. Tick "Scrims and tournaments" under "Looking for", or your game's own format where it has one. Then message the group posts that fit you.

Answering posts is faster than waiting to be found. Since 2019, TeamTavern has had 26,840 player posts and 2,538 group posts, more than ten players for every group (counted 29 September 2026). With that many players to choose from, a group seldom has to go looking, and a message puts you in front of it rather than in the list it's reading.

Give facts, not praise. A rank, a role and the hours you play let a team decide at a glance. "Good comms, chill" doesn't.
Have a microphone. Teams play on voice, and the post asks whether you have one.
Keep your post current. TeamTavern emails you when a new post fits yours, so a post that says what you want now keeps bringing you teams while you're away.

What tryouts look like

An amateur tryout is usually a voice call and a few scrims, sometimes a trial week of the team's normal schedule. Your rank got you the tryout, so the team is checking whether you fit:

You show up on time, every time, for the whole session.
Your comms are short and useful: calls, not commentary.
You take criticism without arguing in the middle of a round.
Your hours fit the team's schedule, week after week.

A tryout goes both ways. Ask when the team plays and for how long, who leads and who makes the calls, and what it's aiming for this season. If the team can't answer those, it's still forming, so expect it to change.

College teams work differently. Many colleges in the US and Canada run varsity esports programmes with their own tryouts. The National Association of Collegiate Esports says 200 schools compete for its championships every year, and more than 260 offer esports scholarships. If you're a student there, start with your college's programme or club.

From amateur team to pro

Pro teams recruit from the top of the same ladders amateur teams play on, and each ladder lets only a few teams up each year:

Valorant: Premier's Invite division, then Challengers. Riot says Premier had sent over 40 teams into Challengers by 2024.
Counter-Strike 2: ESEA, then ESL Challenger League, two teams per region each season, then the VRS invitations to the bigger events.
Overwatch: the FACEIT League, then promotion matches against the bottom OWCS teams.
Apex Legends: the Challenger Circuit, then the Pro League Qualifier, then the Pro League.
Rainbow Six Siege: the Challenger Series, then the regional league.

For most teams the ladder is the goal in itself: a season of matches that count, with a fixed lineup.

Or start your own team

If no group fits, make one. Put up a group post that names the roles you're missing, the ranks you want and when you play. Players have posted about ten times as often as groups, so a group that knows what it needs has plenty to choose from. How to make an esports team covers recruiting, tryouts and the roster rules of each format.

Frequently asked questions

What rank do you need to join an esports team?

There's no universal minimum. Most amateur teams want players within a few divisions of their own rank, and say so in their post. The official formats set a bar only at the top. Valorant Premier's Contender and Invite divisions take players who, in the current or previous Stage, did one of these:

reached an Immortal 3 peak rank in Competitive
played a match for a Contender or Invite team
played a playoff match in Elite 5

How do esports tryouts work?

An amateur team usually tries a player out over a voice call and a few scrims, sometimes a trial week. It's checking that you show up on time, keep your comms useful, take criticism and fit its schedule. Ask the team the same kind of questions: when it plays, who leads, and what it's aiming for.

Can you join an esports team at 16?

On TeamTavern, yes: 16 is its minimum age. Tournaments set their own age limits, so check the rules of the one your team wants to play.

Do amateur esports teams pay players?

Almost never. Amateur teams play for the game, not a wage. Prize money appears higher up: the EML Challenger Circuit for Siege teams in Europe and MENA has a €75,000 prize pool for 2026.

How do I find a team to scrim with?

Groups on TeamTavern tick "Scrims and tournaments" under "Looking for" when they want competitive play, and each game's feed can filter on it. Filter the group posts for it and message the ones at your rank, or put up a group post of your own with it ticked.

Find your team

Know your game's team format and what it asks of your account.
Offer the role teams are short of, and say whether you can lead.
Post your rank, role and hours, then answer the group posts that fit.
Treat the tryout as a trial for both sides.

The busiest feeds on TeamTavern are Valorant, League of Legends, Dota 2 and Overwatch. Every other game is on the home page.