With regards to Cyphus's pool-play idea:
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YES, THIS COULD MOVE AT A SMOOTH PACE IF WE HAVE A DECENT SUPPLY OF TVS AND CUBES. Just remember that we need ample space to have such a tournament run smoothly.
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When the second round comes about, depending on the amount of TVs you have, you can move the tournament to a set amount of TVs and leave all others to play on the other TVs. That is, you can do this if some of the TV owners don't need to leave early, taking their TVs with them.
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There are some people out there that could probably shock you when they make the top 6, especially if you design the tournament to be this way. At the last tournament, lots of the "top players" went into the losers' bracket quite early as the bracket was unbalanced. You figure that happens to everyone at some point. Eventually, the mall tournament's non-seeding double elimination format becomes inferior to such formats as you've mentioned because:
a.) there is not a reasonable seeding system to separate the players. You kind of get an idea of who the best players are, but sometimes there are really good players that just get really bad matchups. Pool play would be more interesting because you can play against people of all skill levels--the POOL allows for all players to play lots of people amongst a diverse crowd. This would be better for some players that have little or no chance of improving much in tournament play because they play people like Cyphus or Lee in the first round and then they go right into the losers' bracket.
A double elimination tournament can give you a general idea of who the best players are, but I don't think it gives you a feel for which players are on the cusp of becoming very good or even great players--players that are in that top-second/mid-second quartile. The development of Smash could definitely benefit by having players play against a variety of others from through pool play. After playing in the pools (in which the skill level should be evenly distributed initially), players can gauge how they rank with respect to other players in Louisiana.
In a double-elim tournament, some of the talented players may get a bad break or two and they'll be out of the tournament. Here, they have more chances to advance and maybe something will go their way and they'll have a chance to advance. Even if they don't, they'll get a feel of what they need to do the next time to give themselves a better chance to advance to the "next level."
b.) more smashers throughout the area will be able to play against each other in matches that aren't necessarily friendlies. I've noticed that some of the players that go to the tournaments don't seem to play as many friendlies as others. Eventually, with the pool-play idea in place, everyone will have played everyone (or nearly so) after, say, n tournaments.
c.) I believe that people would care more about improving their games if there were more incentive. In this case, the incentive doesn't have to be more money or anything. I think it's a great idea to give people more games for their money. Personally, when I play a game, I like to play it for a while.
d.) The champion will not only be the person who had the best matchups and who caught the most breaks. In this format, players would have to play through 14-16 games to win the championship. Plus, one loss won't hurt you badly. You can rebound from a defeat and play a good game against your next opponent and record a win. Conversely, you can have a good win and suffer a defeat in the next round, and you can rebound from that.
e.) If you play this many games, you'll definitely have to have a DEFINITE strategy going into most games, especially if you want to win. For example, you'll only play each person in your pool once, so you'll have to develop some advanced strategy if you want to advance. Some of the factors that may determine victory may include how well you know you opponent. Try your best to give him a bad matchup.
All in all, I believe that this format could easily help you determine who the top few players really are. The top players will be those who make the final bracket consistently.
Cyphus, the pool idea is an excellent idea and I support it 100%. I believe I had mentioned it to a few people before but no one really cared to take it into consideration. I'm glad you thought of this, as well. Thanks a bunch.
--Bermuda
*continues practicing new stuff*