Indeed, the problem exists. Perhaps it would be worth adding a restriction that registration on the forum should be at least 3 months old, and possibly 30-50 posts on the forum.

I would like to criticize this proposal immediately on two points:

1) This restriction will exclude innocent people.
Take me, for example. My registration date is less than a month, and I have less than 10 posts. Why did this happen? I have been reading HW for half a year, but I didn't register because I didn't see the point. I had nothing to write, as I wasn't interested in the forum's life, just as I wasn't interested in ranked games. I could just play through ICQ. I registered specifically for the newbie tournament, and to gain access to it, I played a couple of seasonal games. If anyone sees a crime in this, please tell me what it is.

2) This restriction will not help in the fight against fakes.
I think there is no need to explain that, with a strong desire, it will not be difficult to bypass this restriction. You just need to register in advance and simulate activity on the forum.

Regarding the question itself. Judging by the panic in the community about clones, which is observed in this thread, it is not clear why you are continuing to hold newbie tournaments at all. In my opinion, it is completely irrelevant who wins this tournament. Are you seriously going to determine the "strongest newbie," and don't you even understand the absurdity of this definition? Otherwise, it is not clear why everyone is so worried about the objectivity of the results, so that a newbie wins. Let's start with the fact that the very concept of a newbie is quite subjective; in other words, everyone can understand it in their own way. In my opinion, the purpose of this tournament is, first, to visually lower the barrier to entry, as some players are not ready to immediately participate in large and serious tournaments, and second, to give weak players a nomination in which they can participate with a greater chance of playing against an equal opponent, and with a lower chance of being eliminated in the first round by being drawn against an excessively strong player. Of course, to ensure this, it is necessary to exclude experienced players, which, as far as I know, the organizers are actively doing, but to exclude dozens of real newbies in order to avoid missing a few clones (which is still a very big question), this seems like an overreaction to me. Put yourself in their shoes. Would you feel good about it? What impression will you have of the community after this?

However, I didn't come here with just criticism. It's hard to call this a full-fledged proposal, but I would like to note that in serious sports (for example, chess), tournaments are held depending on the players' ratings and their levels, which guarantees a comfortable game and eliminates the possibility of the world champion playing against someone who has just decided to try their hand at playing against another person.