It's not even about being ahead of other games. Pools from 8am to 12pm and then top 32 at 8am is clearly not reasonable. It sucks tbh.
Tekken did 8am pools to 4pm semi finals to top 8 8am finals the next day with fewer setups.
Ultra SFIV did 8am pools to top 8 last year and that's with more people than Smash 4 had.
Xrd did 8am pools to top 8 in one day with fewer setups.
MKX and Marvel will start today with 8am pools to top 8 in one day too.
The only games that have 3 day tournaments is Melee and SFV.
Melee ran over time like it always does. SFV finished a hour and a half early and look okay timewise today.
The pattern is that Smash games takes a long time and Smashers seriously have to consider if they can modify their game for large tournaments like Evo, or keep their current format and suffer when problems occur.
It's not a coincidence that the two games that are struggling are time are Melee and Smash 4.
It is what it is. I still like playing Smash, but the way the current rules are set up, delays and time issues are bound to happen.