Blog

Ben Drago

I'm sure you all think that Organized Play is a pretty sweet gig. Sure, we're jetting off every couple weeks to cities like Paris, Chicago, and Las Vegas. But every now and then we find a few hours to do some actual work.

Well, more than just a few.

There's a lot that goes into something like the World Cup. Researching venues. Negotationing contracts for the space, furniture, concessions, trash pickup, security. Selecting staff. Volunteer calls. Booking travel. Design and approval for signage. Product orders. Shipping. Customs. Internet. Setting up coverage. Printing forms. Inventory. Setup.

And all that is before the doors open.

Planning big events is a interesting challenge. There's a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that most people don't ever see, but if anything was left out it would be a disaster. It's one of those situations where even if you do 99% of the work perfectly, that 1% that wasn't done well would be what everyone remembers.

The other side of the coin is the little things - small details that don't have an huge impact on their own, but impact hundreds of games every week. They're just as important in the big picture.

So this week we were reviewing my notes from the World Cup, and one of the things I wanted to look at was the time limits, specifically of the quarterfinals.

A8. Time Limits
Rounds in tournaments playing best-of-three matches are 60 minutes long.
Rounds in tournaments playing best-of-one matches are 30 minutes long.

Rounds in single- elimination playoffs have the following time limits: Quarterfinals: 60 minutes Semifinals: 90 minutes Finals: 120 minutes

Playoff rounds in high-level events (Continental Championships and Word Championships) may have longer time limits.

The tournament organizer may alter round time limits, but only if necessary. Time limit changes must be announced to all players at the beginning of the tournament and may not be changed during the tournament.

For a high level event like World Cup, playing three games of Core in 60 minutes in the quarterfinals wasn't right, especially as players had 30 minutes to play one game in the Swiss rounds.

Policy exists for a couple of reasons, but the primary one is simple - we want players to have a consistent experience at every tournament, regardless of where it's being held - Los Angeles, London, Moscow, or Hong Kong.

We also want to make sure that the "best" decisions are made. This is pretty subjective - some players may have no problems spending five hours playing out the top eight of a Realm Qualifier, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do. So by codifying these policies it avoids having situations where the "tyranny of the loud" makes people sad.

So here's what we're probably going to change to:

Translating our scribbles, this means that for single elimination playoffs for Local, City, and Regional tournaments (see CZE tournament policy for what these mean) will either be:

Best-of-1: 30 minutes for Quarterfinals and Semifinals, and 45 minutes for Finals
Best-of-3: 60 minutes for Quarterfinals and Semifinals, and 90 minutes for Finals

All Local, City, and Regional tournament playoffs will use the same tournament structure as the Swiss rounds, so a Core tournament with Best-of-1 Swiss rounds will still use Best-of-1 for all three rounds of the playoffs. For National and World level tournaments, the default time limits will be:

Best-of-3: 90 minutes for Quarterfinals and Semifinals, and 120 minutes for Finals

There may be exceptions to this at some high level events, but they will be clearly detailed in the player information. This may not seem like a big change. And actually, it's not. But it's an important quality of life change for a couple common situations. 1) I'm playing in a Core Realm Qualifier. We finished the Swiss rounds in four hours, and now I have to play in in the playoffs that could take another four hours. Not fun. 2) I just made top eight in the World Cup, and the Quarterfinals are only 60 minutes long so I have to play at a much faster pace than I did in the Swiss rounds. Not fun. And that's really what OP is about. Making sure you have fun.