Richard...
... I have said it before on these boards but I guess you have pulled me into it again - when was the last time you saw Joe's Pub get to play Man. U. in the Champions League? It doesn't happen in other sports so why ours (okay it may happen in a friendly - but that's only if Joe happens to know Beckham personally)?
I am a firm believer in the fact that for this sport to grow, there will have to eventually be a "class distinction". It serves no real purpose to play outside you division anymore at a major tournament. There are almost enough teams to play full Pro vs. Pro at every tournament now.
Yes it's nice - yes teams might learn something - but if that is what you are looking for, maybe you should arrange a training day with Shockwave/Banzai/Backlash or one of the other teams that you consider better than yourself. Just think of it as a whole day of butt-whipping - imagine what you could learn
Major tournaments should be the place where all teams go to compete against other teams at their level and see how they do - and try to become the champion (NOTICE EVERYONE that I didn't say Pro's only!!!!).
The problem is (and this isn't aimed specifically at you) that there are too many people (mostly players) in this sport who are thinking only about how they can get the most pleasure out of the game - not what the game needs to do to grow. I am not saying that the 2 need to be mutually exclusive - however the desires of a lower level Novice team wil be vastly different than those of a top level pro team.
The MS organizers have taken huge steps just by arranging events in the venues that they do, and the field design in Stockholm was also something new, but what we need is more forward thinking along these lines. Maybe there is some brand new way of gameplay that no one has thought of yet - maybe X-Ball is the future - whoo knows. But until that time new things need to be tried, and either kept or discounted - but for gods sake we can't stop trying just because it's different from what people expect.
goose
P.S. Don't forget - there are still some people who feel the game should never have left the woods - or that the semi-auto shouldn't be allowed (never mind electro's)