About the proposed tournament:
I think turbine should be considered for addition to the map list. I personally think it's a near-perfect 1v1 map that emphasizes smarts above all else. Not a lot of American players are familiar with it, and dismiss it out of hand for that reason. I know players like Humpty and ph34r seem to enjoy it like I do. I think it and other potential maps should be discussed, and there should be reasons if they aren't included.
I think a "16 seed vs 1 seed" style tournament would be a bad idea, since you'd likely be pitting IG players with no experience vs weapons players.
Regardless of NN or not, I'd sign up if additions to the map list were at least discussed.