[awm]

The WBF apparently allows players on teams that did well in the Rosenblum to enter the finals of the open pairs, without participating in the two qualifying rounds (when the Rosenblum was going on). This seems cool, because it generally strengthens the field for the open pairs finals. Many of the Rosenblum semi-finalists and finalists have now entered the pairs.

What seems a bit odd to me, is that apparently Rosenblum (semi)-finalists are not required to partner each other, and can pick up partners who participated in neither the late rounds of the Rosenblum nor the qualifying rounds of the Open Pairs. For example, Jeff Meckstroth is now playing with Perry Johnson (who certainly wasn't on the Nickell team that finished 2nd in the Rosenblum).

Qualifying for the finals of world open pairs is hard -- ten grueling sessions of qualifiers in a pretty strong field, and I know a lot of good players who didn't make it. Obviously getting to the semi-finals of the Rosenblum is probably even harder and I'm all for letting those folks into the finals of the pairs. But I don't think there should be a "buy-in" where people who never qualified (in either of the open pairs or rosenblum) can jump into the finals of the open pairs just by picking up the right partner; that does seem to cheapen the event.

[Cascade]

The conditions of contest allow a World Master to play with a player who has been knocked out.

It is a little confusing since the conditions do not seem to mention the final of the Rosenblum:

"Pre-qualified to the Finals: A World Master playing with a
player involved in the quarter-finals or the semi-finals of the
Rosenblum Teams or in the semi-final or final of the McConnell
Teams, provided that such player has played at least half of the
boards played by his/her team in the knockout phase and pairs
consisting of both players similarly involved."

Perry Johnson is a World International Master.