Your first fortnight with the crew
The first fortnight is the hardest part of joining any group. Here is what happens, in order, and where we expect the awkward moments to be.
Before you log on
Once the membership form reaches us, a moderator answers within a few days. The email names your squad, your mentor and the night we think suits you best. Read it once, check your connection against the notes on the faq page, and then try the voice channel on your own with your microphone muted, just to hear how a normal evening sounds.
Most people want to arrive having done something useful, but there is nothing to prepare. The mentor's job is to carry the knowledge, and yours is to turn up and ask. A notebook helps, and so does a mug of something warm. If you get stuck, the text channel for newcomers is watched every evening by someone who remembers being new, and the answers there are never sarcastic, however basic the question.
Two weeks, in order
The first Tuesday
Practice night. Your mentor greets you in voice, introduces the squad by nickname and walks you through one friendly match. Nothing counts, nobody keeps score against you, and it is perfectly acceptable to say nothing for the first hour.
Wednesday, the newcomer hour
A moderator takes new members through the server one channel at a time, explains how to report a problem and answers whatever came to mind on Tuesday. Bring the questions that seemed too small to ask in front of the squad.
The first Thursday
League night. Watch a fixture from the spectator seat, with your mentor commenting quietly in your ear. You will learn more in forty minutes of watching than in a week of reading the rule sheet.
The first Saturday
If it happens to be the first of the month, come to the club room. If not, there is an online catch-up match instead. Either way, by the end of the fortnight you will know six or seven names, and they will know yours. That, more than any skill, is what keeps people coming back. If the fortnight goes badly, tell a moderator and we will reshuffle your squad without fuss.