With a maximum of 49 players participating in this year’s tournament, I had the difficult decision regarding qualifiers and cuts.

RR, flawed as it may be, was the original qualifying standard for this tournament. The tiers of qualification, as posted in OP, are as follows:

1. Past winners are automatically qualified. - 1
2. Anyone in the top 25 current gunboat GR qualifies. - 13
3. Anyone with an RR of 98+ - 31
4. Anyone with an RR of 95+ - 7

The numbers following each tier represent the number of players qualifying under each standard. Unfortunately, due to popularity of this tournament, we couldn’t take anyone with an RR below 95. Again, we can debate the legitimacy of this measurement all day, but since it was already determined to be the qualifying standard before signups began, I kept it as such. Players whose RR fell below 95 are as follows:

taylor4 680.5 92 *
Peaceinourtime 137 92
ssorenn 141 91
Hellenic Riot 100 93
ag7433 109 93
podium 74 94
NigeeBaby 76 90
Chaqa 60 90

This is where it got tough. With 52 entrants for a 49 player tournament, tough decisions needed to be made. I ultimately decided to drop the bottom 3 GR rated players on the theory that there’s very little difference between an RR of 95 and an RR of 98 but there is a sharp dropoff in GR in the final few players to signup. This decision was very tough, as I’m loathe to drop anyone in the tournament, but we realistically can’t have any more than 49 players without overcomplicating and lengthening the format.

On that note, Balrog, pjmansfield, and Hamilton Brian have not made the cut. However, you are first substitutes, and if past experience is any indication, you will definitely play.