I'm going to be Mr Pragmatic Debbie Downer... stick with the SLX and Zillions. I've fished a lot of tournaments and the ratio of boost in performance over what you have/know vs the money spent isn't great. Rods? Totally different beast, go nuts with what suits your needs and desires but reels I'd be perfectly fine running SLX and zillions, Stradics and Kages.
Save money for fees, line, terminal and (oddly my favorite) storage that works for you.