My terminology was that the Bigfoot event "grew out of" the Fatboy Challenge. The Fatboy 10-Ball Challenge was introduced to the DCC in 2009 on 9-footers -- 16 players with an entry fee of $1,000, same as today. Eric "Fatboy" Peterson provided $4,000 in added money, for a total purse of $20,000. Jay Helfert was the tournament director from the start. The field was strong: Appleton, Bryant, Bustamante, Chamat, Corteza, Dechaine, Deuel, Inmmonen, Martinez, Moore, Morra, Parica, Pinnegar, Reyes, Souquet, Van Boening.
The "Fatboy" events continued at DCC through 2012. Then, for the new Southern Classic event later in 2012, they switched to 10-footers and dropped the Fatboy name because Eric was no longer involved. With sponsorship from Diamond Billiards, it became the Diamond 10-Ball Challenge.
For the 2013 DCC, they expanded to 32 players (still $1,000 entry), had the largest 1st prize of all the events, $20,000, and paid 8 places instead of the 4 at all the others. Jay asked AzB members to suggest a new name, and "Bigfoot" was chosen. So it has been the Diamond Bigfoot 10-Ball Challenge since then, including at the 2013 Southern Classic.
All events since the one at the 2013 DCC have been 16 players, $1,000 entry, and $16,000 added. Jay Helfert is no longer involved.
As far as fan (and player) friendliness yes, things are far better now than originally. But I think the streaming of all the matches by Accu-Stats from the same table started with DCC 2014, not with either of the 2 previous "Bigfoot" events (2013 DCC and Southern Classic).
