It's not quite true that the East used to have a 1000-point rule. What
their TLAs said until about 2001 was that "regional winner going to
the playoffs" could not have a difference of more than 1000 points
between boards 3 and 4. The other three USATs used the simpler wording
"difference between boards 3 and 4 may not exceed 1000 points." I
believe the West is the only one still using this. I shall be curious
to see what Steve Doyle and his crew do about the problem for next
year.