TOURNAMENT TROUBLES!

Let's consider two scenarios. A high school student who isn't in the graduating class, with plenty of free time. And a working person, let's say with a family. It's clear that in the second case, there isn't much free time, to be honest. And here are those infamous, hours-long battles with a PREDICTABLE outcome. Technical battles. In which the winner is immediately known; you just need to spend a lot of time flying around with a fairy or a devil... What's the point of this? To weed out busy participants? So that Kyle, Zingel, or Geksorin don't have time to complete the tournament?

There is no logic in your words. You spoke out against automatons, which actually save a lot of real time, but then you lament the lack of time. You can't remove slow units from the map because it will result in a completely different game. Therefore, automatons should be allowed; moreover, they are even more useful for "busy" participants. Having a computer usually means the ability to leave it on overnight. Kyle's case is an unfortunate exception.

P.S. Dear Qwerty, just for fun, look at the average age of the top 3 winners in the first three stages. These are far from being schoolchildren.

and also to ensure that different opinions are taken into account when preparing the map

Here's an opinion: the map for stage 3 was VERY good, dynamic, and interesting, with two practically equivalent (killing the AI in 7 days is easier than taking the sphere, but the parameters will be lower) victory conditions. With a well-thought-out strategy and a well-timed surprise, everything else can be completed in an evening without any stress.