Some very good posts here and I can see that, at the very least, we have some passion about this game we all love.
I was going to post something the other day but figured since I was not attending this year, I would refrain. However, it seems a lot of people are posting their ideas/suggestions so I will chime in with my opinions too.
I wont be attending the event, not because I don't want to but it just isn't in the cards this year. I sure hope I can next year, the first 2 were awesome and I will miss seeing some of the friends I have made since joining the site and some new ones I look forward to meeting someday!
I agree with Keoneyo that this is only our 3rd tournament and we are learning as we go, so nothing to go crazy about, let's take notes and make it better moving forward.
For what it's worth, I personally would love it if Chohan or any other top pros would join the site and actively post, I could think of nothing better! After all, we are all trying to learn and get better so sharing their knowledge or expertise or insight would be very helpful to most of us imo. And if that were the case and they wanted to play in our tourney after being an active participant on the site, I say heck yea, I dont care how well they play, anyone can lose a race to 3.
However, if it's someone who joins just to play and knock us all off, well then I would say they shouldn't be able to play. Kind of like Miller said, it's almost like you have to "pay to play". Whether that means pay with real money through sponsoring a player, buying HOF tickets, grabbing some merchandise or any other monetary contribution. You can also pay with your time and post on the forums, become an active part of the community and engage with us! Some of us try to do all of the above but I think they are equally important.
John, the calculations of posts all come from VBulletin software that make up the forums. I will have to double check but it "should" not only have total posts but maybe somewhere also have "average posts per day" or a similar matrix. I think coming up with a number that seems fair to all would be a good solution for part of our "active member" issue.
At the end of the day, I am here to help support Steve and onepocket.org the best ways I can. That will probably involve a lot of posts from me (sorry I get to multitask at work all day, lol) and helping with the website stuff as I can.
My hope is that onepocket.org will always be a good resource for those wanting to learn the game or improve their current game as well as a place where like-minded individuals can come together and talk about this great past-time of ours!
I know the tourney is going to be a blast for all who attend and I also know that with every tournament we will learn something that will help for the following year.
Have fun and play well, I look forward to seeing some of you on the stream!!