When regional dates were announced, it seemed that there would be a regional on 3 different weekends, for 3 regional sessions. This lead to the joke of, "I wonder who's rich enough to go to all 9 regionals." Now, though, it feels like people /have/ to travel to more than 3, which is just financially devastating.
As an example, if someone got perfect BFL for LCs and CCs (not an easy task), won a states, and came second at a regional (a ridiculous season overall) they wouldn't have an invite.
It's odd because, even though I hate to have to resort to the perpetual argument, the masters CP increased while the juniors did not, and seniors point requirements increased less. This is not to say that seniors can't be good, as we've seen they can be. However, when you have the same number of tournaments, with the same CP rewards, and MORE players, that's the same number of points being distributed over a larger number of people, meaning that people will have less points. This natural handicap due to size already makes masters very difficult to qualify, even ignoring competition, compared to a senior or junior division where there are less people at tournaments. While this is attempted to be balanced out by kickers, it honestly isn't significant due to the fact that with these numbers people need to MAX their BFLs in top positions, and doing decent (such as top 4) at many events won't cut it.