Hopefully, by the tournament rolls around at the end of January a number of the players will be well past beginner.
Espionage/Sabotage is a game without a lot of theory behind it and there's no reason a suitably clever person couldn't be one of the top 10 players on this site within a month and a handful of practice games of learning the rules.
(hide) If you want to play a game with an opponent of a similar level, you can define a required BKR range for a new game invitation. Then nobody with a BKR outside this range will be able to see/accept it. (Katechka) (show all tips)