Glad to see this is still a thing.
I´m sure tourneys with an entry fee would attract people but I would go even further.
1v1, 2v2...everything should be possible anytime and not necessarily in a connection to a tournament.
I can imagine something where players can set up everything themselves, according to their individual needs. Class(es)/Stake/Whitelist/stuff like randomizer and whatnot...
And then a special section on center itself where requests are listed like:
Saga wants to duel!
Scout-Scout on arena_nucleus to 10
Stake: 1ref
Weapons allowed: ~~
Ehh whatever, something like this would work IMO. This system would probably require tons of trusted middlemen who have to spend their time for that. I´m not a fan of that. A bot similar to the ones used on scrap.tf should do the job too. First players need to give the bot metal/keys/buds which will then be converted into credits for this site. I think this is way easier to manage.
I might have forgotten some aspects of my idea which I eventually add later.