Concerning the quality of the players present, I'd have to say it was more or less equal. Instead of Austin there was Dallas. Instead of San Antonio, there was Brownsville/RGV. However, I'm going to have to say that IT was more exciting. At EC I was hardly interested in watching any of the matches over playing friendlies with random people. However, at IT there were so many hype matches that half the time 4 of the 6 stations were empty. We got to see Broly go through strong players like JF, JesiahTEG, and D'oH with a Marth that doesn't wavedash. And you guys haven't seen Broly. He's disabled and can't play with his hands, so he plays with his face.
So many close hype matches happened at IT that I didn't really see at EC. Jake13 vs Cloud, Broly vs anyone, D'oH vs JF (not many people watched it and it didn't get recorded, but it was hella close), me vs Darkrian, it was crazy.
If Austin showed up then it would have been ever better. Shame on you guys for not coming! Can't wait for the videos to get up.