But as far as the change in format from swiss to single elimination, I just don't see why they would even consider doing it. Let me explain this from a player's point of view.
Personally I prefer the new grinder's format. I played in Masters and lost my first round (didn't get the bye).
Grinders is a competition, therefore only the strongest will survive, whether it be skills or luck. You can't expect anything less from a "tournament".
First of all, I got in line for registration at around 10:15. The rounds for Juniors and Seniors didn't start until 3. If you got a first round bye, you had to wait until 4. That's a whole lot of waiting time. And that's usually okay for a huge tournament because you know you'll be rewarded with a lot of playing time. However, half the people didn't even get to play an hour. That's basically between 5 and 6 hours of waiting for most people, yet a large majority won't be playing more than 3 hours.
You will wait 5-6 hours regardless of it being a Swiss format or Elimination format. The majority will not be able to play more than 3 hours "in the tournament" though no one is stopping them from playing against other players if you truly enjoy the game and came for the experience. Also, it is better for you to realize when you have been eliminated instead of losing 1-2 games and try until the end to ultimately realize that you never stood a chance in the first place. So instead of wasting the whole day, the player has only wasted 3 hours. Again, if you truly enjoy the game, being eliminated should not stop you from just playing the game.
So when we finally started playing, the atmosphere was far more intense than most tournaments. In most large-scale tournaments, people talk about where they are from and stuff before rounds. People talked about that here too, but by far the main thing people were saying was how nervous they were. Nobody liked the new rules. And when I won games and matches, it didn't even feel rewarding. A couple of my opponents were on the verge of tears - I honestly felt bad about booting people from the tournament who most likely invested over a 1000 dollars to come here. And maybe I just have too much of a conscience, but when I was eliminated my opponent barely smiled when he was told there would be a top 16 cut instead of a top 8 and he had a spot in worlds. Maybe he was being a good sport, but he seemed to genuinely feel bad.
It is a competition, therefore the atmosphere will be intense. Everyone wants to win. Given that this is their last chance to qualify into Worlds (The biggest Pokemon tournament of the year), players will undoubtedly be more nervous than they are at other events.
Your opponents were on the verge of crying and it is right to feel bad for them. Though the real issue here is that your opponent could not handle a lost and that shows weak sportsmanship. The reason you would genuinely feel bad for beating someone is because your opponent is discontent with the outcome.
I also felt bad for losing but that was something I had already accounted for beforehand. When I lost, I congratulated my opponent and wished him the best of luck on his upcoming matches. He was happy in getting the win and there is no reason for me to take that away from him.
And people will say this is crazy because it's no different from a top cut. But it is very different. See, players who make it to the top cut have already accomplished something. So even if they lose in the first round, there's hardly a reason to feel bad. Players playing in a top cut have also played a good number of swiss rounds and probably had fun in those. Another huge difference is that most of the time players in the top cut are getting prizes. So when they walk away, they still have something to look forward to. Usually when I walk away from a top cut, I'm thinking about what cards I want to pull in my packs. When I walked away from the grinder, I just kept on thinking, "why did I play the damn PlusPower?" And it's not the first time a misplay has cost me - usually I just forget about it though. I can't change it to be anything else, so no reason kicking myself over it.
Instead of comparing it to grinders, why not compare it Swiss when you're opponent has already been down a 1-2 games(depending on how many will advance which is usually given at the beginning of the tournament). Beating them there is no different than it is in elimination except the fact that your opponent is left an uncertainty of whether they have a chance being in top cut. Resorting in unnecessary games that the judges has to attain to though it has no influence in the top cut whatsoever.
I suppose most of these things are less of issues in Masters, but I'd assume they're also more of an issue in Juniors. I often saw a couple of kids crying when I was going down the escalators to the open play area between rounds.
It is always disappointing to lose, though an important lesson is taught through elimination. Not "everyone" is a winner. I'm sorry, you've tried your best but it is just not good enough. Don't give up and try harder next time.
The reason for the change was apparently to keep the judges fresh for the next day. But this was certainly not their only option, and there were probably better ones. For example, they could sell individual cards at a stand for cheaper prices than most vendors in order to be able to afford more judges for the LCQ. Most vendors have to make a profit off of buying cases of booster boxes, but Nintendo would only have to make a profit off of printing shiny pieces of cardboard. So I imagine the store would get a lot of business as the prices would be unmatched and it would be the only single-card vendor at worlds, and therefore would be very profitable. And if I actually spent time on it, I'm sure I could think of more ideas.
Selling individual cards for cheaper price than the vendors is a "nono". It will greatly affect the value of individual cards thus causing an uproar among the vendors. When vendors make a profit, Nintendo makes a profit. This idea would only cause a deficit in Nintendo's profits in the long run.
As stated above, why would you have judges attain to games that have no influence in the outcome anyways?
One last issue - in the first round ("Top 256"), my match went to game 3 sudden death. I opened a lone Tyrogue and by pure luck he couldn't get his out while going first. If a game is that close and I made it much further, I wouldn't be surprised if my opponent would have too. Heck, Ness and Gino could have gotten paired in round 1. Yet they are probably both better than a majority of people who would be playing in the next round. I know this has been brought up before, but I wanted to emphasize it again.
Ness and Gino could be paired up round 1, and the better player will advance. They would be unlucky if that had happened.
If you open a lone Cleffa against a Tyrogue in a swiss round? Although you could possibly be a better player, you will still lose the game. Luck is a factor of the game and you just have to accept that it is there. A best of three format will also decreases the luck factor.
The LCQ didn't seem to see too much of a drop in attendance from past years, but if others' experiences were like mine then I'd assume there will be a drop next year. If this happens, I assume there will be a drop in prerelease attendance because there will be less people overall. Now, I don't know if Nintendo makes a profit off of the average player who doesn't compete in worlds but still attends (because of side event prizes), but if they do then a drop in attendance would mean a drop in the number of Prerelease attendees. This leads to a drop in profits. So, hopefully we'll see a change back to the way it was before (eventually).
/rant
I believe that Grinders this year was actually the largest Grinders ever. (Don't quote me as i'm only 90% sure). I will continue to attend Grinders if given the chance to. I also expect a drop next year, though not because of the format but instead because it is held in Hawaii.
