I don't understand why it just can't be simple.
Make madman/manip/decap/idgaf. End of story. No bullshit settings to put you out of your comfort zone. Smaller prizes, but the same event rules run every week with a different judge, basically making it the sp equivilant to gmtourneys.
Fancy shit gets exhausted too quickly. A return to just basic style, whatever your style is, never gets old. That's half the problem with sp events these days. Couple years back it was basically 3 big sp tourneys a year that got specific, like toriolympics, with maybe 1 a month that was simple idea with basic guidelines, like opener challenges. Everything else was just make something, just make it look good. And it worked because the difficult specific ones were worth the payout, but you would have fierce competition, while the frequent ones had a lower payout, but more new players participated because they were rarely entered by big names or veterans, and gave a sort of incubation to foster sp playing.
I could just be talking out of my ass from nostalgia, but I was honestly more hype for events because the difficulty for every sp event wasn't ridiculous from criteria, it was just break shit. As a perfectly horrible analogy to the art world, I feel like it's the moment when people looked at realism and went "why are we painting reality when I can paint a perfectly illogical flying unicorn?" or the surrealist movement, as I've adequately butchered the history behind it, of the sp world. Why can't it just be for good old fashioned violence? Again, could be talking out of my ass, but sp competitions of late feel elitist and constricting.
People who start sp feel compelled to start at realism and insane intricacy, as the only rewards for sp are for realism and insane intricacies. Don't get me wrong, it's cool and jaw-dropping, but I picked up this game to absolutely brutalize something, and I think it's pretty safe to assume it's the same for most people. Mp is popular because it's simple to start it, and quickly rewards you with very large bloodbaths and very easy tc. Sp rewards you with virtually nothing until you become a master. Some could argue that's good, and there are certainly merits to it, but it stifles newcomer interest, and rewards a select few of the community, almost the epitomy of elitism.
Anyways, that's my two cents in. /rant etc.