Originally Posted by
Yugl
While the current situation is frustrating and the merge will heighten this tension, the suggestions you're offering do not help. All it will do is increase competition for Sobek or whatever other NM. Part of the reason there is so little competition for these NMs is that not everyone has a pop item.
Think about it this way. Lets say we have 5 groups competing in a tournament. Normally, you could have multiple brackets where teams eliminate each other. At some point, you get two teams that compete and one emerges victorious from that fight. As it currently stands, all five "Abyssea teams" are consistently fighting in the semi-finals. By eliminating the semi-final round, you simply escalate the number of competitors at the last round. In other words, you haven't changed the level of competition, you've simply displaced where the competition is held.
It should be clear that if you want to reduce competition, you need to cut down the hierarchy and make it so multiple victors can emerge. How can you do that? Offer more ways to obtain Empyrean items via different NMs.