Cybit wrote:
Anyway, back to the topic at hand...do you think GOWK will actually survive long enough to win any of the regionals with 16+ people?
Honestly, I think that all comes down to how many people actually PLAY GOWK.
3 people in TX out of what...14 total? Something like that (don't feel like looking right now, lol). So almost 20%
In WI it was only 3 out of 26 and only 2 out of 20 in Atlanta, so roughly 10% in each of those. I think that's the problem there. Without a high enough amount of saturation, it's too easy for one lousy match-up (or play mistake in these situations), or the screwy swiss pairings, to hose everything up.
I mean, with the WI guys, it seriously could've gone like this
Round 1 GOWK A vs GOWK B and then GOWK C vs. random other squad. A and C win, B loses
Round 2, GOWK A vs GOWK C and then GOWK B vs. random other squad. C and B win, A loses
Round 3, GOWK B vs GOWK C (both at 1-1 now), and GOWK A vs. random other squad. A and B win, C loses
Seriously, if the matchups ran like that, which is perfectly plausible depending on the rest of the swiss field, and you only have 3 GOWK squads out of 25 people, it be quite easy for them all to knock each other out.
At GenCon 2007, one of the Cincinati guys had to play 3 other people from Cincinnati in the first 5 rounds of the tournament. Now, the example isn't completely relevant, but if all of us from Cincy had a goal to see as many of us as possible in the top 8, but 4 people have to play other members from their own store...well, you can imagine what happens. Unless the player/squad matchup is just solidly in favor for the same person in every one of those matchups, they likely end up all knocking each other out of contention, which is exactly what happend, lol. Analogy sort of works with GOWK too.
So, if enough people aren't playing him, it's perfectly plausible that other squads will win at the top. We'll see how it goes in Cincy. I expect to see at least a few GOWK builds, but it'll be hard to know for sure what will come out on top.