Timer Length 101: How the Timer Influences Camping.
The timer's basic purpose is to conclude a match after the determined period of time. The winner is decided by stock and %.
Without a timer, neither player is ever forced to approach the other. If a player loses the lead in any way, it has no effect on their play other than having a smaller pool of health. As such, both players can infinitely stall one another. The losing player could play hyper-defensively infinitely. The winning player has no mechanism to force the opponent into action, and the losing player also has no mechanism to force the opponent into action. This is viewed as: Infinite Time = Infinite Appeal to Stall
With a timer, there is an end point to every match BUT the timer has increasing influence on the match as the remaining pool of time decreases.
With a greater amount of time, there is less incentive for action. If either player is in a losing position, it is optimal to play defensive. The player in the lead will either not be willing to stall and approach the opponent, or will also play defensively.
Two players playing defensively leads to super-safe play on both sides, and an overall boring match.
The losing player in this situation is taking advantage of the extremely long timer not having an influence on the outcome. They are hypothetically REQUIRED to approach or lose, but this thought is not an issue, as they have a great deal of time.
The winning player in this situation is given free will on whether to approach or defend.
With a lesser amount of time, action is required. If either player is in a losing position, they must go on the offensive or they will lose. The winning player has the option to play any way they want.
While timing out is definitely more possible in this ruleset, I say that it is a good thing to have because it requires more active play. One player is pressured to the extent that they must now be the aggressor, regardless of their character or play style, or lose. The leading player is given choice.
As such, the timer must be set low enough that it acts as a force on both players, while high enough to allow for matches to conclude themselves naturally (zero stalling match). To set it too low forces reckless action, while setting it too high allows defensive play while at a disadvantage.
The timer is currently too high, as it has next to no influence on the vast majority of matches.
To those of you saying that the short timer will cause camping, you are incorrect. The short timer will definitely cause more defensive play as an intelligent response to having the lead, but it will also force the opponent to play offensively to try and take the lead, forcing more action overall.h
I have purposely not mentioned the Armada vs HBox set as an influence on this, as it really had nothing to do with it, but I'm going to discuss it briefly.
Watch the first match of Armada's YL vs HBox's Puff from Pound 5 and then watch the matches from Apex 2.
HBox going into that first match had no idea how defensively Armada's YL would be playing. As such, even when he had the lead, he still played aggressively, and ended up losing his stock over it. He didn't capitalize on his advantage because he didn't realize the impact it would have on the match.
Armada knew how he would be playing against HBox. Even when he is at a disadvantage, he repeatedly uses the same strategy because there is nothing to pressure him away from playing defensively and set up the situations in his favor, even when he is not in the lead.
Now, I actually have to criticize HBox here, but until Seibrik was coaching him, he failed to capitalize on his leads properly. Watch the matches after compared to before. Whenever Hbox had the lead in the prior matches, he continued fighting as if it meant nothing. After the coaching, whenever Hbox has the lead, he backs up significantly, forcing Armada to use his projectiles to approach, and then leaving armada with only YLink once(if) he has gained the ground successfully. This is the intended exchange of offensive and defensive roles.
The problem here though, is the time. Because of the amount of time available, Armada is under no real pressure to hit HBox, and can afford the few seconds it takes after throwing his projectiles and having no other zoning tools to run away and regain those tools before approaching again. Essentially, this gives Armada free second chances to get his setup right EVERY TIME HE MISSES. The true pressure of the clock only occurs when the match is into the last minute or so and both players are scrambling to take the lead.
