I'm a relatively new player. Could you inform me of what the old format was?
And Rocky, no, with additional swiss rounds, you DON'T have to go X-0 to win. That's the point. And there isn't as much decided by resistance.
Top Cut at the end of most all BR's.
As nopoke pointed out, Swiss+1 means the winner could be decided on resistance. Is that a good thing?
Downgrading BRs so that they become small entry-level tournaments again is a good idea. BRs were way too important last season. If people want to spin it as a way to sell low prize support and let the TOs go home early (pretty insulting to people who volunteer their time to provide tournaments), then . . . eh. Those people are always going to find a reason to complain whatever they do.
That's the point-- they're becoming more localized. Whether or not this is viewed as beneficial is a personal matter to everybody-- we'll all have beneficial opinions. A side-effect of killing TC is that PTO's and TO's get to go home early-- is that a bad thing? No-- they deserve it. In no way was I saying this was to suit TO's and PTO's because they wanted to go home early. I said that by removing TC and causing players to drop more, more TO's and PTO's will feel like their work will not be appreciated, and thus as a result it is unlikely that they will want to hold as many BR's and other tournaments. I am HUGELY appreciative of what they do and would never attack volunteers-- I do it myself a lot.