I understand the need for a mechanism to boot out people who run out of time, but often the way it is implemented in tournament settings is either unfair or renders the tournament scores pointless.
Often in a tournament where there are ten players in each game someone will time out and be booted out. Therefore most people in the tournament end up on the same number of points and the winner will then be one of the few people who ended up in a game that actually finished.
In elimination tournaments this is even worse as when someone is eliminated only three of the remaining five players go through to the next round and two are eliminated through no fault of their own. As far as I can tell the people who make it through are selected at random which means that you can be eliminated even if you were winning at the time. What is particularly galling is when one person who is losing by a long way waits until the last minute before they lose to boot someone else out of the game.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but as things stand there are far too many games that end unfairly and far too many tournaments where the scores don't accurately reflect the skill of the players involved.
I think personally I would prefer that games were allowed to continue after someone has timed out. This could either be that the round continues from where it was, or that it is restarted without the timed out player. Certainly there needs to some kind of system in place to prevent the abuse of the system outlined above. (I realise that you can always 'thumbs down' a player who abuses the system, but I'd prefer something that stops the issue from happening in the first place.)
What do others think? Any ideas?
Often in a tournament where there are ten players in each game someone will time out and be booted out. Therefore most people in the tournament end up on the same number of points and the winner will then be one of the few people who ended up in a game that actually finished.
In elimination tournaments this is even worse as when someone is eliminated only three of the remaining five players go through to the next round and two are eliminated through no fault of their own. As far as I can tell the people who make it through are selected at random which means that you can be eliminated even if you were winning at the time. What is particularly galling is when one person who is losing by a long way waits until the last minute before they lose to boot someone else out of the game.
I'm not sure what the solution is, but as things stand there are far too many games that end unfairly and far too many tournaments where the scores don't accurately reflect the skill of the players involved.
I think personally I would prefer that games were allowed to continue after someone has timed out. This could either be that the round continues from where it was, or that it is restarted without the timed out player. Certainly there needs to some kind of system in place to prevent the abuse of the system outlined above. (I realise that you can always 'thumbs down' a player who abuses the system, but I'd prefer something that stops the issue from happening in the first place.)
What do others think? Any ideas?