Interesting you made it a Matchpoint problem when the hand occurred playing IMPs.
Particularly at this vul, not sure I see the merit in running, at any scoring. Even when pard had a 5 card minor, I am 3 off or so... Doesn’t need much to change to show ...
player behaviour is driven by the cut-off set. If cutoff is 5 mins before game time, last minute entries will flow through then, if it is a few days or a week prior, those same players will sort themselves out then.
Setting records is always great!!
The Gold Coast event in Australia (18-25 Feb) currently has 482 teams entries and with concurrent side events entries 512 tables in total.
http://www.qldbridge.com/gcc/index.php
The Gold Coast event in Australia would frequently have 250-300 teams - all pre duplicated boards. I echo Avon's comment that I haven't played without them for 15-20 years.