[asid61]

Originally Posted by Citrus Dad

I'm not quite sure if you understand the premise of this thread. There are going to be two events of 400 teams each (800 teams total). Unless we change the format, they will almost certainly be divided geographically. The Texas teams (e.g., 148) will be in Houston; the Ontario teams in Detroit (e.g., 1114). In addition, California will almost certainly be assigned by Houston. So under the current proposal, 115 will never see 1114 at Champs even if you are the two best teams. And the best will never meet each other so you won't know which of the best you would be testing yourself against. Given that situation, would you still prefer to only go to the Premier event only and never the Challenge events? You can always choose not to go the the Challenge event if the team qualifies, so you won't be forced to go that event.

I used 1114 as an example. My point, which I tried not to state blunty, was that this looks like a "winners' Champs" and a "losers' Champs" (this is hyperbole to explain what I am worried about), which is highly undesirable to me because of the selective removal of talent. At that point the so-called "Challenger" champs becomes a large regional.