Japan's time called procedure... why not that way here?

[dogma]

I can't really see watches/announcing time being a huge factor in stalling. It seems that people either go into a match knowing they will stall, or they're gonna play fair.

I mean it would be fairly obvious if someone dramticallu switched pace in a game, surely?

 

[Scizor]

Try and tell me something like Empoleon can adapt to what you described above. It CAN'T. At least not vs. GG. You can almost never play a turn like it's your last. Often when you do, it turns out that you just completely misplayed the remainder of the game.

Time shouldn't really be a way to win in Pokemon. Unfortunately, it is. But adapting to it by playing a different way with your deck is not stalling! It's just another part of the strategy involved. Many people are not good at it! I always consider time when I'm playtesting prior to events. As long as it is around and as long as our games often take over 30 minutes, it's going to be like this.

 

[SteveP]

When you know that your opponent gets to go last if it's your turn when time is called, chances are, you'll play faster on your turn to improve the odds that time will be called on your opponent's turn. I like that!

Regarding random seeding, at US Nats this year, #32 in Juniors was TristanR (2007 US Nats Champ). He beat the #1 seed in the playoffs, then proceeded all the way to the finals where he finished #2. TristanR proved that #32 in swiss is just as good (or maybe better sometimes) than #1 in swiss. So, I see no problem with random playoff seeding, even for every round in the playoffs.