I've heard teams in the past complain that teams buy their way into the championship event. The criteria listed above would only fill about 2/3 of the slots, so yes some teams have the opportunity to "buy" their way in. Maybe there should be an application type process based on past history, if you don't qualify the traditional way. We have "bought" our way in in the past, but decided not to this year. Luckily we qualified the old fashioned way.
