Quote:
Originally Posted by theun4gven
I find it interesting that refs would knowingly ignore a rule and that it would be mentioned during kickoff this year as a fine example of GP. I believe this rule goes against GP and the spirit of the games and I'd like to see it changed.
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Many of the Refs have been refs for years. Cascading timeouts have been common and indeed practically expected for years. I know that at least one instance occured in the dark ages before Alliances. It is not suprising that a field crew should over look this rule, because we are creatures of habit. Unless somebody specifically pointed it out, it would be easy to miss. The wording last year was also less than clear.
This year they decided to make real sure that EVERYBODY paid attention to a rule that all hoped would never be needed. That is why they brought it up at Kickoff, to make it unavoidable.
Speaking as a competitor, I am sad to see the opportunity for this gesture go away. My team has personally benefited from this behavior. When I thanked the other Alliance for it they replied "But you would have done the same for us" and they were probably right.
But now that I am more involved with organizing the event, I see more clearly how the extra time outs are drags on the audience's patience. I don't know about your teams but we have huge family support. Everybody comes, from 8-week old younger siblings to grandparents. It is hard for some of them to sit through 15 minutes with nothing happening.
Having awards in between matches helps a lot, but those have to be scheduled as well. You can't just say "hey they just called another time-out, bring up the Animation awards early" That messes up the planned "fillers" for the later matches where they are more needed.
The competition is a show, it has to move to have legs. Dead time for any reason has to be avoided. That is why they put in the rule last year and why they made it more clear this year. While it is certainly Gracious to your opponent to allow them more time for repairs, is it Professional to do so? or Gracious to the audience? These things also need to be considered.