Did we just fix SPEs?
The SPE in Colombia has historically been pay-to-win for day two players. SPEs that give the local community a path to get their invite to Worlds are good. SPEs where day two chasers take most of the points are bad. Many Central and South American SPEs have historically been the latter and not the former. I will note that this isn't always because of NA players - LATAM day two players have done the same as well (see the inaugural Paraguay SPE) SPEs are more pay-to-win than regionals, because a good placement cannot recoup your travel costs, outside of specific stipend math. How do we make this better? The way to make SPEs better and more "fair" is simple, but not easy - raise attendance. TPCi can do this by scheduling SPEs to not conflict with major tournaments, announce them well in advance, and space them well throughout the year. TPCi historically does a bad job announcing the SPEs with lead time, and has a bad habit of putting them in the last two months of a season.