Yeah no.

No black belt (aka under 1k games) in the game, (not an alt) will ever beat any of the people mentioned here in a 3 mod first to 5 duel. It's not that players mentioned here are "average players who are known". They are mentioned over and over for a reason. The reason being, they are pretty damn good at the game.

Saying "everyone deserves a shot" is nice, but then again, if you plan on hosting a tourney for around 30 people, whats the point of having some low tier players sandbagging the tournament. There are no miracle 2nd dan black belts who actually can match anyone on the list. It so just happens, that people who are good at the game, get noticed because the community is so darn small.

I'd understand where you're coming from if the game had 100k players, so that some of the good players might fly below the radar, but again, that's not the case. In the case of Snook, yeah most people know hes pretty good, but nobody seemed to think he was the best, that's it. With such a small player base, people who are good, are known to be good. That's it.