Insight from a retired staff.

The application is but a fraction of the hiring process. Is it flawed? Absolutely. Under the pretext that the majority on the forums are either late teens, young adults or full fledged adults, the application is NOT the section preventing you from becoming a GP.

For some, it is your ban history. You cannot change what has been logged on your account. All you can do is wait months/year without being warned/banned.

For others, it is your comportment. How do you behave on Graal/ other mediums on a daily basis. Are you confrontational? What vocabulary do you frequently use. You may not be reset for it in game, but frequent use of "ffs" or "stfu" doesn't reflect very good. Keep in mind your activity is monitored, more so if you happen to check all the boxes in your application. Are you a cooperative person? You may write so in the application, but perhaps take a look at how many people you have blocked. Plenty may be justified but if you happen to be that person who blocks others for mildly being annoying, once again it doesn't reflect that well.

Another aspect is who do you hang out around Graal? Jarace earlier addressed what appeared to be an issue with Andromeda being close to a player not viewed particularly favourable. This is an example of players not trusting staff because of their social circle. How often do your friends mention that they have been wrongfully banned or rightfully banned. You might be spick and span, yet suspicion can justifiably arise from the logs of your friends. Can you take action and ban your friends. Many turn a blind eye to that.

I believe a comment was mentioned either in this topic or an earlier one about that the issue with Classic's staff is that they seek players who have an image of a GP, instead of hiring those who can get the job done properly. I agree with that, but not in same way as the author of the comment. The current team is full of capable individuals, they just don't have the image of it. Are there ****pumps in there? Likely and I trust that they will be weeded out once they show their colour, especially with the current GPAs.

Now I might not have the same graal background as them as I've been in three successful tower guilds, I've actively sparred for a year back when, etc. To some, they believe that is what constitutes a good GP. A Jack of All trades. However, there is some pedestal being created here that they should all should be like that. I disagree. From 2013 to when I retired, I've had a pleasure to staff with capable members from all backgrounds. Take current staff Za Ichi, very different graal playstyle, but from what I've seen, he's just as those capable of those with sparrer/pk/bk histories. GPs like him put in 1.5 to 3 times as many hours I could ever have weekly, yet hardly get recognized as they don't fall in the "image" of the model GP. Take your time and pm them. More often than not they will provide an answer to your question. The only time I suggest not to, and many players do it, is submit their question following an event. Rarely you will get a response.

To conclude, for those applying or have applied, the hiring process goes beyond your ban history and your application. Now I'm not saying throw away your friends for another social group or change your lifestyle. Just be aware that more often than not, you aren't held back because of your application. While it's easy to point at its flaws as to why it is preventing potentially great candidates, it likely the other factors holding you back. Hiring these members with shady attitudes will just perpetuate the cycle. They can be good but to the players, rarely noticed. Most will assume he's just another horrible staff.