My outlook is that with a Donkey Kong tournament that lasts 2 days, you're either going to play well and have the machine you're on give you a soft game (little to no screwings, easy barrels, lazy fireballs, lotsa free passes, etc)...which will return a 1M+ score...or you're in for a 2 day struggle to put up 800-900K.
If a soft game of DK would help me 25%, bringing my control panel might help maybe 2%. In the end, it isn't worth the trouble in my opinion. There are many other factors that trump bringing your own control panel (imo). I'll hope for machine with some lucky games and try to play clean (no deaths from human errors)...and make the best with whatever control panel I get.