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BGonline.org Forums
Taking a principled stand on clocks
Posted By: Stick In Response To: Taking a principled stand on clocks (Jason Lee)
Date: Monday, 26 March 2012, at 6:52 a.m.
We all love bg here and there are many pros and cons to consider when filling out your own personal tournament schedule. Ultimately, it will be up to the individual to decide what the most important factors are and what he can tolerate that bugs him. For example, Bill Davis' CSI tournament earlier this month. Bill does a ton of great things for the game, runs a good tournament, any tourney that I can easily drive to is high on my list of events to attend. However, this tournament I wasn't able to record my matches unless my opponent agreed (unless it was the semis or later), I couldn't use a clock unless my opponent agreed to it, and I had to dress in a way I normally wouldn't. For me, that was three strikes that mattered and I was out.
I don't think you have to make it an all or nothing proposition. Clock usage assuring good mechanics during your matches and a smoother tournament is highly desired by myself also but if nothing else major detracts from the tournament for me I won't skip the tournament. This past weekend Cleveland is a good example. While I hope to write something up later today, in short it's a well run tournament with no clock preference. I can live with that especially since I know the field won't be overwhelming and isn't as likely to get backed up.
To address a couple other posts in this thread...
I asked this question to a few people milling around this weekend at the Cleveland ABT tournament, Paul Berg amongst them (worked the tourney), and still have yet to ever hear a satisfactory response. I'm all ears per usual.
- I understand why players may or may not like clock usage but is beyond me what directors/people running tournaments have against them as far as smoothness of the tournament being run. Does anyone have a good explanation beyond the following points?
- Providing the clocks. I don't think the burden should fall on the tournament to shell out the money for clocks.
- Lugging the clocks around. This is also a pain for the tournament staff even if they do somehow get a hold of enough of them.
- Some players may refuse to attend.
The fact that a tournament runs smoothly in general is not a good argument against clocks. It will crumble at some point and it will run better with clocks. These, to me, are facts.
Steve Hast mentioned the increased attendance at PGH, how everyone loves the tournament, etc... Nobody is suggesting clocks in the beginner or advanced divisions so you do not need to satisfy the majority of players present. What we are suggesting is you satisfy and run as best as possible the Open division and perhaps the doubles which is often a sore spot for backing up the tournament and the Masters Jackpot as that is typically only Open level players also.
The amount of people in attendance at a tournament is a very poor indicator of how well it's run. Do you really think people flock to Monte Carlo because it's one of the best run tournaments on the planet? Do you think the Vegas tournament exported and ran by exactly the same people in exactly the same way would draw as many numbers if magically exported to another city? Some tournaments draw people for a number of reasons and as I mentioned in another post it is a big turn off to me when things aren't clocked. This does not mean I won't attend the tournament, it just means I'll roll my eyes and shake my head a lot more during that weekend and wonder when things will shift completely.
You can't seriously think a staff can stay on top of every match and figure out when one needs a clock and implement it properly and in a timely fashion. By the time any back up has occurred the damage is usually done.
This is a very fragmented post because I have a lot of other stuff I should be doing so I'm sure I left out a few things I'll correct later when people bring it up. I want to come to PGH next year but no clock preference and no filming preference apparently (?) are two big knocks against attending. Add to that some of the people I hang out with during the PGH tourney may not be able to drink/go out because they're working ... hmmm .. making it tough on me.
Stick
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