So: 1). I didn't understand the meaning and purpose of this tournament. For me, games are divided into: simple ones that are played during a season, and tournament ones. Accordingly, I treat tournament games with increased responsibility. During the season, I play to improve my skills. Is this tournament just one of many? Or what? Obviously, there shouldn't be too many tournaments. For example, I find it interesting to participate in such tournaments as Jebus Cross, I want to play in SoY, maybe even in Clan War. Everyone has their own thing, but I don't see it here. To determine who plays better, there is a rating (/topic/at/210169/). If you hold a tournament to identify the strongest players, then I would be interested in participating in a tournament with the strongest players from other resources (I hope to reach the level of such tournaments someday). But holding a tournament to identify the strongest player "in your environment" seems uninteresting to me. For example, based on saves, it’s already clear who is who.
2). Setting the goal of playing only against opponents of equal strength is wrong.