they were just the rules we used, to make a completly fair (as possible) duel tornement, personally i dont mind looms, most people have some. the stf was just an idea to keep things fair as people retire often and winning a duel tonement at lvl 22 would be pretty much impossible against someone like tommmyys lvl 33 2hand
spam skill. to me it doesnt really matter anyway because i cant see me winning any competitive duels agaist actually good players.
but thats just if i were the one to decide 
would best out of 3 be too hardcore?
it's your idea, why wouldn't u get to decide
we found 3 was too low, someone just need to get lucky twice to win, but like i said these are just rules we used before, not necessarily what is best for what u plan