I would argue that a magic slinging contest is no different, and arguably far more survivable, than just firing guns at each other.

The issue I have with T1 and magic is that T1 is far more useful for understanding lower tier combat. It gives no reference or examples for anything other than a spellsword attacking someone while simultaneously charging an ability. However, that in itself is to my interpretation evidence that if one was -not- swinging that sword, there's no reason why they couldn't just be firing a fireball instead.

Honestly, my plan is to never host a tournament ever, because it's up to a tournament host to somehow roughly balance up to 10-20 people's characters for a good competition. Fuck that.