tcsnkc brings up parity. one of the things that I noticed at the coliseum this weekend was that in the first round on Friday, 4a was considerably behind 5a and 6a because there were fewer short matches. after that, everything kinda evened out, indicating to me that the upper and lower ends of the brackets were more closely matched in 4a. 4a seemed to have some really good guys, like Taplin and Grater, but you really can't take much away from guys like Baldridge either. top to top, probably we have reached an equilibrium. top to bottom, I think 4a is still tougher.