That tournament is great to keep in-mind, as is looks as it's specifically meant to get more people playing the game, especially with no venue fee and ony $5 per entry.
And I agree that most tournaments including KOF should advertise whether they will have casuals available, as lots of players off-line are still learning about XIII.
However, I want to say the people befuddled by mixups, tactics, and things they haven't seen before, need to be told more that they have to expose themselves to losses and unexpected things to to get better. If they plan on investing time in the game, losses will come, in double-elimination, or other ways; it's what you take from those matches that makes the difference. Both winners and losers lose, but losers simply lose and winners learn why they lost. Several guys who participated in the online tournaments certainly didn't start out as winners. They took their loses, researched and talked about why they lost, and eventually reached the third, second, or top spots. I can understand the pot monstering thing to some degree.
At STA, do the guys that place high on Sundays show on the Free Play Fridays and help teach the newer players?