Hi Joe,
I'm not sure if you will need to pay a fee or not. I will do what I can to ensure you don't need to pay to get in, but I'm not sure how successful with that I'll be.
As far as the prize structure, I'm not too sure on that either. Last year it was really top-heavy towards the bracket event, but I'm trying to convince Richie to change that. Last year it was so stacked, all the players in the bracket decided to split the money no matter what, and everyone who qualified into the bracket (top 8 from the high score competition) walked home with $500. Hopefully things are a little more fair this year so that won't happen again.