The person going into grand finals from winners side has to win an extra match now, and the person coming from losers gets a freebie if they lose. In other words, there is no benefit to having no dropped sets so long as you make it to grands.
I don't exactly foresee myself being affected by this rule change, but at least for next time you should maintain a consistent ruleset and not go changing it mid-tourney.
The people from the upper bracket with the best chances of winning, IMO, are the ones I talked too.
I've changed plenty of things mid tourney. Having a malleable ruleset and case-by-case judgements by me, who has great judgement and sense of law and goodness, makes everything cater to the contestants. If they can't do their fight on time, disagree with a fight, or whatever, they can talk to me. I'm not gonna quote the rules like a lawyer. And if something seems unfair to me and to others, then I will change the ruleset, this isn't 1984. fuck.
And yes the person from the upper bracket who goes into the finals will have to win an extra match, but they will get freebies too, freebies they
did not have otherwise, whereas the lowerbracket winner did get freebies, and will get another.
As I said, and we are starting to go in circles here, the reason for the series of 3 FT7's is to give both fighters a chance to feel the other one out, and adapt, using their skill and knowledge of the game, to prove themself the better duelist. People IN the upper bracket who are likely to see the finals are the ones who talked to me about it. I agreed with what they said, made a compromise, they agreed with the compromise, here we are.
This was done in consideration of the likely possibility that the upper bracket winner could lose to the lower bracket winner and will be eliminated from the tourney without having a second chance, as per current rules, while the loser of the lower bracket did. I don't see the problem with the change, and neither did the several people I talked too.
I've said enough, man. Have the last liCk oF tHE tONgUE