Timeouts in tournaments

There seems to be a lot of timeouts in tournaments. Are there more now than there used to be? If there are, is it a desireable situation? If not, what could be done?

I see Villein being blamed a lot. And all in all bloat, but usually that hinges on Villein. But was it better before Villein? (I didn't play in tournaments until relatively recently, so I don't know, really.)

There hasn't been more timeouts over time.

extrala.blogspot.com/2011/11/ec-gamewin-timeout-statistics-update.html

erm I think Ralf's numbers show increased timeouts:

EC 2011 37,50%
EC 2010 36,33%
EC 2009 34,22%


Whether you consider it significant is a separate matter.

Also this is limited data - it's all EC data so is likely to be skewed by the 'Meta'.

IME, table talk is the single biggest factor in time outs. In addition, 120 minutes divided by 5 players is only 24 minutes to each player per game. Can you take every turn in 2 minutes or less?

Can you take every turn in 2 minutes or less?

On average, sure.

If you plan your turns ahead of time it speeds them up significantly. If you pick up your cards and look at them when you have untapped your stuff it takes ages.

Also, a large amount of people just play mindnumbingly slow. I've been watching people play that took 90 seconds pondering and starting at their hands before deciding that they did not play a master card because they didn't have any on hand. And no, they were not considering the minion phases yet, because when they FINALLY announce their master phase is done, they start counting blood counters on their minions and evaluating their hands *yet again*

I've literally hear people tell me at tournaments "I hate Ashur Tablets not bcause they're too strong, but because 4 out of 5 players waste a good 5 minutes of the game checking what cards they want to return to their libraries when they could easily have decided that in their predators or grandpredators turn."

Slowplay, more than anything in the world makes tables time.

Nice pie graphs. Might I request that we get an (n=NNN) on the legend (or the title) of each of those? That data is readily available on the posts, but it would be a nice immediate takeaway from the graphs as well. Thanks.