Hey Eric, I totally agree. There’s a good chunk of us who never really liked the name “Pre-Master”.
I’ve been on the competition committee for 6 years. When we were voting on increasing the number of categories (I think in 2015), there was a group of us who wanted to go to 4 categories, with a 5th category that would be held once every few years and would require multiple designs cut in different materials. They would have been Novice, Journeyman, Expert, Master, and Grand Master. At that point, most people agreed with changing to 5 categories and having the above names, but the late Will Smith was not a fan.
I’m happy to propose the name change again, after we release all the 2020 stuff. I don’t know if this year’s competition committee would be interested in adding the 5th category.
-Arya