Currently, unless I am really missing something, there is no way to empty an equipment slot except to salvage an item in the same slot.
Because the tournies have gear limitations, and there is not a realistic way to own items every slot given the storage limitation, most players need to unequip items in order to enter, but there is not a simple “unequip” button.
Thanks
I am all for it.
An option to unequip spells and gear.
All the reasons expressed by the OP.
What a novel idea! I’m so glad someone finally suggested it
In other news, this has been recorded and mentioned to our designers. I can’t guarantee that this will be implemented soon or put in game, but our team is aware and looking into it.
lol, nice!
This seems like a QoL thing, because normally it would be. Unfortunately the very stringent inventory limits elevate it to a game play thing. The only way (currently) to avoid the issue is to do PvP Tourneys at or near “naked.” I have to believe that is not the intended gameplay.
Very happy that its at least getting some buzz! Also understand that there are currently bigger fish to fry. And thanks for the chuckle! 
Not only that, but there is currently no way that I can find to even get to “naked” so that I can even participate in the tourneys. At this point I would love to unequip everything and then just equip the appropriate gear, but the only way I can find to do that is to salvage whatever is in the slot. But I don’t have anything I want to salvage!
Maybe a quick way would be to make it so that when you try to fight in a gear-limited tourney, and it gives you the message telling you your gear doesn’t match, it can give you an option to automatically unequip all slots that have non-appropriate gear. Would this be easier to implement than a full unequip function for each gear slot? Or maybe a build-wide “wipe” button that just strips the char naked completely, for that build slot (the three build slots for each character).
That would be great.
I was thinking of maybe just having the game ignore any “wrong” gear in your loadout. So, for example, if you are wearing the wrong color helm, the game behaves as if you have no helm. That wouldn’t work for weapons, though. I like your idea better!