[Chi Meson]

Doing the simple math, only 30 qualification matches can be played. They might save some time by doing some "speed rounds" as the day goes on (quickly announcing the teams, no flags, etc). Still I can't see any more than 35 matches possible in 4.5 hours.

That means a maximum of 210 "slots" (6 slots per match); divided among 40 teams, that means no mare than 5 qualification matches can be possible in this time frame.

I'm guessing 4 rounds though, with some teams playing a 5th that won't count. So it's not going to be doing a great job of sorting the best teams in the top 8.

The alternative is to follow the Minnesota model, where teams come in pre-ranked based on their best regional performance. We'll have to see how this goes this year.