[quote=@Viatos]
Is there a reason NOT to do competitive applications? First-come first-serve is only really fair to people in the right time zone, anyway (me, right now) - but then you don't necessarily get the best group and might end up missing players you'd really like over players who are, as you say, quick but maybe at a cost.

If you're not under a time crunch to get the game started, you could just declare a time period, let people app throughout it, and then pick the group you want at the end.
[/quote]

That honestly seems like a good alternative because of how competitive things seem to be already