It's not really discrediting the event. Discrediting the event would be saying that it sucks and should never run again (No one has ever said this nor ever will). WCW4 for IGAU was an incredible event that was well run with one of the finest GF in the game's life, but it was a regional event at best. It had half the Evo top 8, but it is what it is. Just wasn't big and didn't have a huge pool of talent beyond the Evo guys there.
This is almost never an actual slight at the events or the event runners themselves. In competition, the reality is that not everyone can be great. We all can have our opinions, and that's cool (that's cool), but at the same time, top guys are top guys because they can consistently place ahead of the competition.
I'm sure Buffalo and 2ez and the SOVA guys are nice swell guys (I've met a few of them, I know this to be true!), and I'm glad they support the scene by spending the time and money to go to tournaments, but they simply don't have the resume of top players, and they've been going to events for the better part of the year, maybe longer in some cases. I would imagine no top player would look at an event filled with these guys and consider them reasons why the event is a major only because, again, the resume is not there. But that's okay!
The nice truth about FGs is that you're never down for good, and the opportunity is always there for you to take your rightful place. You can look at the careers of players like
@cR WoundCowboy or
@16 Bit or
@Big D who have all had big ups and downs but picked themselves out of the dirt every loss to emerge as true forces in MK9, IGAU and MKX respectively.
The truth is, not everyone can be considered great, or even very good, which is how people will ultimately judge events. This is not a life sentence, however, and the cream
always rises to the top. Fuudo for thought.