Personally, I don't really want to abandon the characters/world, but it does definitely need something to give it some kind of momentum again.

Whatever you choose to do, I'd say what it could do with is a bit more of a clear, overarching plot. Whatever that would be is up to you, but some kind of approaching conflict that the players would be aware of. While the conflict between the schools is all well and good, I feel like that's more of a part of the RP's setting than the plot of it, especially a lot of characters don't really have much reason to be involved in the fight between the two schools.

The issue is that it almost feels like we have a setting without anything to move it on, which means that the RP can potentially turn into a series of basically unconnected events. I wouldn't say it's gone quite to that level yet, but it has been approaching it. Which makes it very difficult to find inspiration/motivation for a post. Plus, speaking as a really anxious/shy person, not having an established reason for characters to really interact makes it difficult to approach people for collabs or whatever, although that's more personal nervousness than anything else.

There are a lot of positive things in this RP. The character development and interaction are great and the setting is genuinely interesting. But I don't think those things can carry an RP on their own without a plot to carry the characters forward. There needs to be something for everyone to work towards or figure out, some sort of payoff for all the development and everything, or it becomes difficult to find inspiration.

Because the setting and characters are so strong, I think there's a very good foundation to build a plot off of. But there does need to be something there, at least in my opinion, to fuel everything behind the RP.

As for how to do this? Well, I don't know. It depends how invested everyone is in keeping their characters, really. But the way I see it, there are a couple of options.

1. If you choose to keep the same setting & characters, and just move things on, I'd say either move to shortly before the beginning of the tournament and make some kind of plot clear there, or just move on to the next semester for a mostly fresh start.

2. If you want to reboot completely in the same universe, take some time to consider a progressing central narrative before doing so - something that would give the characters a reason to act.

It might also benefit from an actual Discord server rather than the messaging group, purely so that you can have different channels for different things.