what is wrong with you people? this is a KNOCK-OUT-TOURNAMENT. think about the name...
the entire point of that is a lucky player can advance close to the finals and get a chance at the title with a lucky draw. have you ever been in a knockout tournament in your life, for anything? take chessplayers for example: they keep score of their records wins, losses for hundrets of years and even have patented their own ranking system and managed to establish it world wide across the globe. and yet their is average joe players of 1200, newbies of 800 and bellow entering tournaments together with players and rankings of above 2200 (thats a LOT!). the weaker get kicked out, some grandmasters play other masters early and in the end everyone watches the best of the best kick the others butt and everyone enjoyed it and no one went to the judge and complained it was unfair and he requires 2 kings and 3 queens to make it fair.
all these suggestions are nice (kudos to legion, i like it) but it goes against the spirit of what a knockout tournament is about. it should be basic as in uncomplicated with simple rules and not last too long. if you want brackets then open the CW-leagues.