Top on HW

My opinion might not carry much weight here, and I'm not vying for participation, but I can't stay silent in such a discussion.
invisible +1 - in my opinion, in the main tournament, there should be a maximum of 10-11 players; otherwise, the tournament itself loses its meaning. Initially, the tournament was conceived as an elite one, which inherently determines that it is not for everyone. And the main indicator of such a tournament is not even the top 10 players in it, but rather the qualifying round – the more players want to get into the tournament, the harder it is to break through, and the higher the value of a top spot.
Regarding openness/closedness – the tournament should be ABSOLUTELY open to any player from any resource, BUT the initial selection should be made exclusively by the organizers, based on the players' current skill level, IMHO.
2 Oelm, the goal of the tournament is not to create "statuses" but to motivate players to improve their skills and get into the main tournament.