Professor Dav
Master Trainer
Dave, what are you at liberty to discuss regarding the time change? As in, what can you tell us about the real reason/s why it was made?
We have always been aware that the community would like more time for finals rounds. We're also aware that other games have un-timed finals rounds, but far, far better management of stalling. It is also worth noting that the goal for a best of 3 match is not necessarily to have 3 full games played out. Rather, to have at *least* one solid game completed to determine a winner.
Part of the challenge for Pokemon, as opposed to most other games is the multi-age division play that we have to manage. There are huge differences in expectations for a tournament based solely on who's playing. We, and our PTO network have always felt that events should be "bedtime friendly", because parents like to not have cranky, overtired kids. It also, of course, makes for a far better tournament experience for players of all divisions.
Also, because many Masters are parents of Juniors or Seniors, there are problems with allowing the JR/SR divisions to wrap up many hours prior to Masters. That said, this year it's likely to happen that way, and those MA parents will have to manage the issue. And I fully expect we'll get some complaints about it.
Even those Masters players who don't care about staying up late end up caring quite a lot when the Judge staff is so wiped out that the quality of judging starts to suffer. This is something else that must be considered.
The biggest items we're trying to accommodate are the sequential finals matches, and featuring those matches. This is definitely something we've received feedback on over the years, and felt that the reasons to make that switch were compelling enough that we should try do so.
Once we had the approval to move on several of these items, we were free to work the schedule up accordingly.
I think overall that everyone should be pleased with the result of Nationals this year, but just like every year, it's just a stepping stone into the next season.
Thanks,
Prof Dav