As much as waffelz post sounds like mocking, it has some points. 1v1 was miserable for me, there is too much to handle at once and no pointers. Maybe some sort of "training" could help new players. Like campaign missions, but isolated, with a script to guide players and let them develop basic skills (e.g. explanation on how bp relates to energy and mass, practice to balance eco, examples with multiple engies draining resources, explanation on different energy to mass ratios for different buildings). As usual, i know the main limit here is someone willing to create this stuff.

I disagree with making 1v1 mandatory, or to make anything else mandatory. I would suggest once again to limit the pull that astro/gap have on new players (new players get kicked from more experienced lobbies, get demolished in ladder, and the only place where they feel welcome is astro/gap lobbies. Not only because they are generally more tolerant, but basically because they are just more. It's a self-sustaining issue imo. We should encourage small custom games (like 2v2-4v4) rather than 5v5+ shitfests where game knowledge is absent and impossible to learn. Even i struggle in 6v6, and i have almost 2k games, fuck sake, everything seems random.

Another thing that could help would be a fast reset feature, where you can try a BO and reset the game without restarting the lobby, or having to yolona your base. The same feature even in multiplayer games could help beginners (and not just beginners) to train more effectively and in a less frustrating way (think about trying your start 20 times, but with an insta reset rather than quit>create lobby>load>start>load>play>repeat). Yes, yes i know, either "game engine issue" or "yeah but who is gonna work on that? It would take so much time". I can't offer a concrete solution sadly. I think that if we had the tools to make this possible it would bring huge improvements.