I respect and appreciate your dedication to the 19 bracket, Conq, but the 19 bracket is not in as bad of a state as you are implying. I also do not agree with your argument that the bracket does not need pugs.
FIrst of all, a decrease in activity is to be expected during the school year. This has always been, and will always, be the case. Also, it is not the fault of any individual players or the community that the bracket suddenly went inactive. There is currently a bug in the queue system that pretty much guarantees that no WSGs will pop until summer. Once summer comes around the bracket will begin to flourish again, as it always does.One thing I've learned about this bracket and its community (been playing 19s nonstop since '07) is that it manages to persevere through pretty much anything.
When it comes to pugs, we need them. The bracket has and always will depend on pug games to build and strengthen the community. If pugs cease to exist, players will go else where (exs: 29s/100s) to join a new community. Or like my guild and others plan on doing, we'll bring the community with us. Many of us (my guild, HB's, and other respectable twinks) already have plans to transition over to doing Hero RBGs after the Twink Cup this summer.