Sorry not to have covered the event as it deserved, but...life. Anyway, the parodying event I feared would come to pass is very close to happening. The 2021 FIDE World Cup is on the verge of its final match; Sergey Karjakin is one finalist (he defeated Vladimir Fedoseev 1.5-.5 in the regular, classical games) and the winner of today's tiebreaker between Magnus Carlsen and Jan-Krzysztof Duda will be the other. As the main point of the event is to qualify two players for the 2022 Candidates, Carlsen's participation is, frankly, rather stupid, as no matter what happens in his match with Ian Nepomniachtchi he's guaranteed of being either the world champion or qualified for the Candidates. Karjakin is guaranteed a place in the Candidates no matter what happens in the final match, but none of the players Carlsen beat prior to the semi-finals will qualify, even though they might well have made it had the world champion not participated.
It's especially a pity for Etienne Bacrot, who lost to Carlsen in the quarter-finals, and especially for Andrey Esipenko, who made it to three rounds of tiebreaks before Carlsen finally eliminated him.