Oh no such a big deal that the first round has a few more bad match ups. Does it make placing or winning a state title easier, no. Not sure how not having regionals has “watered down” state. Now if you talk about combining classifications that’s one thing but this change did not water it down. How many times have you seen a 4th place kid from a tougher region take out a regional winner from a weak region in the past. One could argue that the 5th place kid from the stacked region would have had a better chance to place than the 1st-4th place kids from the weak region. Does the new format let in some kids that are not “deserving” yeah but they will be 2 and done and probably with a nice view of the lighting so who cares, it doesn’t affect the top end kids. It will let a few kids in that will place that wouldn’t have made it based only by the region they are from. So actually it probably makes the placing rounds tougher than in the past. Change is hard for people I know but maybe let it play out.