sorry i just dont see the point why there should be 16k or 8k teams in competition. how many of those are willing to participate?
Well, I suspect the vast majority would be willing to participate. Especially if there is a tournament seeding based on world ranking, the tournament results had a large impact on that ranking and if there was cash involved.
As for walkovers, that is a completely different issue entirely and could easily happen in the new B3 format. In fact, there may even be some encouragement to field walkovers as Superfly pointed out.
What is needed there is simply a couple of extra things. First, make it impossible to set a walkover line-up or default line-up. Second, if a walkover is indeed set, simply choose three players at random. This would solve 99.9% of the walkover issues. And for those it did not solve, those teams would go in the 1st or 2nd week of the tournament, anyways.
I rather suspect the issue here is more that you do not want extra Italian or American teams in the tournament, making it harder for you to win. As you know, the vast majority of the "strong" teams in BB do not play in the B3 on a season to season basis.
Run of the Mill Canadian Manager