The reason I chose Gabe over Kate was as follows:
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It was an invitational tournament. I could predict what decks most people would play and the meta is very inbred. I expected very few rogue decks and also practically no RP (there was an off chance that @Cerberus would bring it but that was about it).
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The field I expected (and indeed, was the entire top cut) was HB FA/Rush hybrid and NBN FA/Butchershop. I believe these decks are the best three on the Corp side at the moment. I also believe that Gabe has a better HB matchup than Kate, a better Butchershop matchup than Kate, and I think Kate/Gabe vs NEH is pretty close in the meta now, where most NEH tech their decks with Kate in mind.
If it wasn’t an invitational tournament or I expected a meta that included RP or Blue Sun, I’d have probably just gone for the safe option of Kate. I am happy with my choice of Gabe, and the games I lost had a few pilot errors, and not a fault of the deck.
I want to echo this sentiment. I can’t think of any decision of organisation that I thought was bad. The tournament was extremely well ran, and massive props to you for running it, Dan. It’s pretty mad to think that this was the first tournament you’ve organised, at a massive scale, and everything ran extremely smoothly. This sets a very good precedent for the future.
Heh, I don’t think this is true, if we liked NEH more in testing we both would have collectively picked that, I think.