Finals are boring. Pt. 1: Slow Play

Most finals in VTES are boring. Nothing happens, every one sits on his ass and waits, that some other player makes a mistake. Mostly finals end with time-out. I have seen three finals at the EC 2012, all boring as hell. That is not the fault of the players, they tried their best to win. But it is a problem.

We have the best card game in the world and it has the worst finals, you can think about. In the finals VTES should show its potential and not its negative side. Think about it: Even if the whole world would be playing VTES, nobody would watch it at TV. We need finals at least as thrilling as poker.

I will offer three possible solutions to the problem in different threads and hope you will discuss them with me.

Problem 1: Slow play
Most finals end with time-out, because it is in the interest of the leading player that the game times out. Did the EC 2012 gave us the best player or the champion of slow play? I don’t know.

Solution 1: Rigid judge
The penalty guide tells us, what should be done by slow play. “Slow Play penalties do not require a judge to determine whether a player is intentionally stalling. All players have the responsibility to play quickly enough so their opponent is not at a significant disadvantage because of the time limit. […] Penalty: Caution. In addition to the penalty, the judge may assign extra time to the game if he or she feels it is appropriate.”

Why don’t we have judges that rigidly apply extra time in finals. The EC final ended at half past eleven. Nobody at that time would have cared if the game had lasted until midnight, if it had been a thrilling game. If player knew, that slow play would be immediately punished, they wouldn’t do it.

Decebalus wrote:

Solution 1: Rigid judge

That's a bad for a bad: having the judge step in every five minutes won't make the final more enjoyable.

The EC final ended at half past eleven. Nobody at that time would have cared if the game had lasted until midnight, if it had been a thrilling game.

Then assume it: no time limit in the final when possible. Now you don't have to worry about slow play at all, unless the rest of the table falls asleep

Adding time to the finals or playing without a time limit would make the already successful block decks even more successful. VTES would become a block decks only-game, I believe. By reducing the time to 2 hours, we get more fast paced games and the decks which are defensive still have to move forward a reasonable amount. I think the 2 hours are a good limit. Maybe it should be decreased to 1h 30min, to make the game more exciting, if anything.

Decebalus wrote:

Most finals in VTES are boring. Nothing happens, every one sits on his ass and waits, that some other player makes a mistake. Mostly finals end with time-out. I have seen three finals at the EC 2012, all boring as hell. That is not the fault of the players, they tried their best to win. But it is a problem.

Did the Silence of Death finals time out?

If not, perhaps the solution is returning the game to its pristine state of players playing the game (and not the clock or each others mental states) by using Silence of Death rules for every finals.....

Adonai wrote:

Did the Silence of Death finals time out?

It did time out, but the winning player got 2 ousts before timeout.