The quote contained within this post is from a different topic that has since been closed. I was originally going to post this there. Good thing I copy-pasted.
I liked the idea someone had of posting tournament rules around the tournament.
Also, should there be a rule against splitting after this tournament? I think so. People can get away with splitting at small locals, but I don't think this **** should fly at a tournament of this size and importance.
I'm going to assume the first part refers to me, since I posted about it earlier in a not-ROM thread, then posted again when something happened at ROM.
At a random MN local back in January, the TO printed off copies of the ruleset and placed them around the venue. Heck, at a freebie run in my dorm last year someone wrote the ruleset up on the whiteboards in the room for easy viewing. At FC, IIRC, they had the ruleset at each setup, or at least at each table of setups. It is not much of a stretch for nationals to do this. This is not the first tournament where there has been confusion about the ruleset, nor will it be the last if tournament organizers do not take initiative to make the rules clear.
At this tourney alone:
1. There was confusion about whether Wobbling was legal.
2. There was confusion about which version of DSR was in effect.
3. There was confusion about whether or not Bo5's had bans allowed (this last one was especially weird to me because that's been an extremely prominent rule at every tourney I'm aware of for a year now except FC which everyone knows full well had a "throwback" ruleset).
And that's just what we saw on stream.
I implore tournament organizers to take this simple step in the future, or to at least announce the ruleset at the venue pre-tourney or something. Yes, it is on the players to know the rules, but it removes a whole lot of hassle for everyone and prevents such controversies as the one that happened tonight. This is a minor expense that will make everyone's lives much, much easier.
What tonight made me decide is needed:
1. Posted rulesets at tourneys to allow easy checking
1.5. For good measure, commentators should be forced to wear glasses that occasionally display "THERE ARE NO BANS IN BEST OF FIVES" in giant red letters. Seriously guys, I love you, but c'mon. You're doing commentary. You should know the ruleset. For months I've been tuning into tourneys and hearing commentators say, multiple times, "*gasp* [Player 1] took him to [stage]?!? What did [Player 2] ban? Wow, what a strange move," again and again over the course of the tourney, and it never occurs to them that maybe there are no bans in best of fives like there haven't been at every tourney for quite some time now. I do think the commentators remembered this partway through tonight, but still.
2. A clear definition of out-of-game stalling. Rulesets frequently have some sort of vague restriction that says "Please don't take too long stage striking, too long counterpicking, too long warming up, etc." Literally no one ever gets called on this. Everyone just sits around frustrated. IMO, rulesets need to make this extremely clear. Once a match is called, a player can request one minute to warm up. Further, they can take exactly one minute in between matches to decide stage bans / character selection and so forth. No warm-ups are allowed in between matches. If these limits are exceeded the player can be disqualified at the TO's discretion. Or SOMETHING. I don't know, someone else set the time limits if they don't think those are good, those are just examples.
3. Ruleset needs to be clear on what should happen in the case of a dispute. Ideally this should literally never happen ever because the ruleset should be posted and players should come knowing the ruleset and so on, but just in case, the ruleset should clarify. In the case of a dispute, a player has the right to request a TO to come over and check it out. The TO will ensure it occurs in accordance with the rules. If the request is determined to be frivolous and blatantly performed in order to delay the start of the match for any reason (ex. if person is insisting on checking which version of DSR is in effect when it is clearly displayed on a posted ruleset at the setup), the player may be disqualified at the TO's discretion. If a game is played in violation of the rules, the game's results stand.
4. Ruleset should be clear on whether or not splitting, sandbagging, or any variant of either is legal. FC's ruleset said that the TO's reserved the right to disqualify any player that they felt was not trying their hardest to win. If splitting/sandbagging are not intended to be acceptable, they need to be listed as such in the ruleset so that there will not be controversy if disciplinary action is taken against the players in question.
Sorry if any of this is unclear or written poorly. It's one in the morning here and I was up early this morning. I will be happy to clarify tomorrow if anyone finds anything unclear or disagreeable.
And as long as I've got your attention, all sets in bracket should be Bo5, partly because they're a more accurate measure of skill and partly because under our current ruleset Bo3s and Bo5s test different skills, which is weird. But that's for another topic, I suppose.
