The way I see it this is natural selection, we're not after the best automatch player we're after the best compeititve tournament player. Someone that has the mental fortitude to survive on the grand stage of our first organised dedicated live event tournament.
Stuve showed he didn't care, Kimbo showed an embarrassing level of misjudgement. Both were also soundly beaten by the traditional tournament heavyweights Luvnest and Jesulin.
On the plus side, we did get to see both in the tournament, and it was awesome. I wish Stuve hadn't refused to play his 3rd place match, and I wish Kimbo hadn't trolled so stupidly, but those things did happen. Now we lost two 'personalities' and the likes of Refero and Siddolio have a better chance to qualify to let's face it watch DevM vs. Luvnest again etc... (probably).
I'm disappointed in you AE. For someone who claims to be a Noggano fan, I would've thought that he would be your favorite for the finals. He was the greatest player not to play last year.
Edit: I just saw that Russians can't travel. I must've missed something there. Oh well.