Let’s be honest here, there are 4 giant buttons when you click play in the menu & 1 small blue one below the it & no one will take notice of it because it doesn’t have a thumbnail picture on it!
I suggest when you click the competitive button & you’re either not in a group or your group isn’t full, why not be greeted first to the LFG menu & have some sort of “skip” button if you don’t want to use LFG. This way, it can encourage people to actually use the LFG again.