Adeimantus
Grandfathered
Basically you're saying : "Twinks, don't be twinks for this tournament. Let's play it Legion PvP style. Don't play it like you would normally have and please don't do those things (like weap swap) that can help you overcome or optimize certain situations. Don't use this item or that one, but some of them yes, but most no".
So it only becomes a class competition, and not a twink competition. And low levels are not really balanced, are they ?
People can't use loss of control items, can they use enhancing items, like jade pendants ?
Why are people allowed to play new races when not everyone can have them if they don't have the right expansion ?
Twinking is also commitment and days, sometimes even weeks or in the most extreme cases months of farming. Trying to find the right gear for the right situation, sometimes it's arenas, sometimes BG. It also means playing around certain abilities or items, defensively or offensively. Some people have been twinking for years, some for days. With this rule in place people may as well go in arenas naked carrying only weapons, it''s the same thing.
I remember years ago there was a 39 league going on in EU (i'm sure the thread can be found on old twinkinfo forums), and there was this Hunter (named Tolli ?) who had the 100% speed ground mount (back then mount speed depended on the mount not on the riding skill) and players were debating wether or not he was allowed to use it in arenas, after many posts everyone agreed he was allowed to use it, even though he was the only one to have it. Because that was the whole thing about twinking : twinks are not just a class, twinks are an optimized character.
That was my point.
But: after all, this is your tournament, you can decide how to manage it of course, and people are free to join or not. I just can't see this as a "twink" tournament with that rule in place.
It's a competitive tournament for money though. A wild west approach creates enormous barriers to entry and limits competition to those who have been playing the bracket since elementary school. It would also be completely horrible to play/watch if people could do literally whatever the fuck they wanted.
I don't think the legion comparison makes sense either. You can still make decisions about how to build your character, you just don't get to have an overwhelming power advantage over new entries.