No idea about world tour - on the x299, I was strictly against allowing it anyway
1. After Intel´s paper launch we still have regions where cpus are not available, and what is even worse, a lot of boards are not available. Some guys in the staff are still believing in vendors and promises, and that a launch is a launch. Maybe next time they will be more realistic. Fact is Intel and vendors bunnyed a lot of stuff up by making paper launch, sending out dozens of samples but you cannot buy the models they send out as samples even in big markets like europe.
2. X299 cpus without delidding are useless if you want to max them out. Delid tools are not widely available which provides another problem.
3. I have big doubts that someone buys an expensive new gen platform for team cup only, so don´t tell me you spend 2k or whatever to throw the hardware away after the cup is over...
P.S. You can easily believe all of us would prefer it to be different, but we have to react when we see something goes utterly wrong