ideally this is what i was thinking:

Have different leagues that players can go in and out off and you can only play players from your league or the bottom portion of players from the league above you. (perhaps also top portion from the league below you)

that way players will get a chance to rise through leagues, improving their skills and will get points based on opponents. Basically, the way its done in SC2. We can also have leagues for different countries (or else one clan will just dominate the leagues >_> ) and then pit the top players from each league in a team contest to see which country or region has the best players that time around ^_^