WacoBlaze wrote:
If you add time to the top 8 matches this year or next it is changing the game that the other particpants that did not make the top 8 played the day(s) prior...(any 200 point game other than tile wars and Epic Duo). Make the time limit for all 200 point constructed games (minus tile wars and Epic Duo) an hour and fifteen or twenty minutes and it would make all games including the championship's final 8 the same with the same constraints and expectations (hopefully more finished games).
It is correct to identify that top 8 games are different than a regular swiss game, but you are incorrect in identifying the cause. There are two reasons top 8 games are already significantly different (and therefore best strategy is to play differently in them). The first is the nervousness/careful play that results. Single elimination and the stakes of the win slow people down, all players. PLayers who've never experienced it either first hand by playing in it, or second hand by watching friends, can have trouble understanding this, but it's true and you simply have to face it. The second, is more important in my opinion, and the straw that changed my own opinion on the length of finals matches. In swiss, there is the scoring system to deter intentional slow play. And while we have made great strides to deter it, in the finals it can and will happen in ways that we cannot control as a community and as judges. Think through this simple question carefully before you respond to me. Someone goes through swiss, and goes 5-1, with 3 2pt victories, and a slow play warning or two. The squad match up in a particular round clearly favors the other guy in a full time game (for example, playing 5 IG-86s vs New Republic), but because of the nature of that matchup, the other squad isn't going to have the lead early, and likely won't take it until close to the end. The guy with the IGs, can easily "slow" the game down to a 2pt win without causing a judges action. What's the consequence for that player? In swiss, at least the guy only gets 2pts. In the top 8 single elim, he/she advances to the next round. The game is already significantly different in top 8 play vs. Swiss. The idea with adding time is to get it more in line with Swiss play. 30 minutes actually does make a huge amount of difference in this. It's nearly impossible to slow a game to 90 minutes without one squad gaining a full win without incurring a judges wrath, unlike 60. Its so impossible, that I venture to suggest that it would never ever happen. And that's the point. In swiss, we use the 3-2 scoring system, and active judges to control slow play and encourage finishing games in time (and we've made great strides in it). In the top 8, we don't have the same kind of pressure, and as such, it doesn't happen nearly as often.
I'm pretty much in support of discussing it with the players on Sat night, and if that fails (totally ok if someone doesn't have the time), try again for the top 2 Champ game (again time can trump it). All you have to do to ensure it happens for the final game is to start the top 8 at 8:30AM instead of 9AM, and to me, there is nothing, nothing that says we cannot do that right here and now.