Okay, so here is the question posed to me. Should tournaments guarantee two matches? In most cases I say yes. Local, and regional tournaments emphasize play and competition so two matches should be guaranteed. This is not difficult. Have a consolation bracket, no refs and schedule the matches around the other brackets. Have as many round robins as you can.
Now national tournaments are a different animal in my opinion. I entered national tournaments to see how I stacked against the best in the USA. I did not enter to play at least two matches. The prestige of playing with the best of the best was good enough for me.
To increase participation all of these divisions were invented and started popping up at nationals. Centurion, Centurion A, B,C,D etc. and every division you can think of began springing up. Now people play who were not looking to play the best of the best thing but looking to win a medal were rewarded. Players began paying other celebrity players to be their partners in doubles and the whole thing has become for lack of a better word, weird!
Now I am listening to people complain they paid $100 and only got one match. Whose fault is that? You lost. Get better! It is called competition. You compete to get better, or you are competing for medals and fb selfies?
Look at it from the tournament Director’s side. You get to eat Breakfast, lunch, and dinner for three to four days for $100. Try doing that in a restaurant! Then you get to try your skills against the best in your class. Then you get to watch the best of the best play.
And as an “Oh by the way” that cost of food will sky rocket in the next few months due to inflation in our economy. So there’s that also!
In local and regional tournaments I get it. You should get more for your dollar, but In big National and international tournaments I do not. The Masters tournaments do guarantee many matches so the tournaments are like a mega-marathon workout fest. Go there and get a good workout. Go to the Nationals to win! Or not!
Go get’em tigers!!