Why? That’s all I ask. Why do it? Is your little make believe tournament so important in the great schemes of things that you are willing to sell your e-soul and push aside all your integrity just to finish it? Have you planned so badly that any deviation from the plans you set down mean absolute chaos for your event? Is your backbone so fragile that you can not stand up and say…” Hey, you didn’t RP so regardless of why, you will not be advancing.”

There have been enough tournaments occur since e-fedding started so that all possible tournament scenerios have occurred somewhere, at some point, at least once. If so, then planning for such scenerios should not be a problem since you just have to do a little legwork and see what works and what doesn’t work and how “NOT” to do things.

In the real world I have to plan, evaluate and implement complex marketing projects all the time. These projects involve multiple people from multiple sources on multiple days. My projects, like an e-Fed Tourny, are based upon a timeline that keeps the entire project flowing. And, like an e-Fed Tourny, certain events, and inputs must occur in a specific order so that the entire project can move forward. But, being the competent planning person that I am, I have researched and set in place all sorts of alternative plans in case certain hedgemarks are not met. As a matter of fact, the entire project is not even approved or undertaken until a complete set of backups, plan B’s and alternative actions are setup and in place. This involves going over the entire project step by step and planning for multiple failures along the way. Once I have convinced those in charge that I have planned for all sorts of emergencies and multiple failures, then, and only then will the project be approved and put into motion.

So, why don’t E-fed Tournament organizers do the same thing? It’s obvious that these tourneys are vastly important because they seem willing to do, say and change anything just to complete them. But let’s not just speak in general terms here, let’s get to specifics here.

In the CWC Ascension Tournament, they stated that no-shows would not only lose automatically, but be banned from the site. Fair enough. A good rule set in place that was then followed, as one contestant failed to RP and was out of the Tournament. The actual reason he did not RP was not a consideration as he was given an automatic lose. But then, skip ahead to the semi-finals, when there were just 4 contestants left. What happens? Two players in the same bracket fail to RP. This occured, even after the deadline was oddly extended for some vague reason. So, is the “no RP, you’re out” rule get enforced? Nope. It seems one of the participants went into the hospital for some reason. As a result, the deadline was being extended ‘after” it had passed. Now while this sounds cool and compassionate, it glosses over a very glaring fact that, “Hey! What about the other guy? He also did not RP but was not hospitalized. Why does he get a second chance?” Personally, I don’t know. But since it would have brought chaos to the Tournament, which until that point was sailing quite smoothly, I guess the “fix-this-at-all-costs” situation was invoked once again. Then to further confuse things the two people in the other bracket that RP’ed on time both advanced for some strange reason. No reason, just forget the “best RP advances rule” and let both move on, thereby setting up a triple threat match for the Tourney Finals. Once again, logic and integrity goes out the window in favor of saving the precious Tourney.

Let’s look at the worst of them thou, the Total J Cup. Trouble began in the second round when 4 players no-showed resulting in 4 walkover defaults. Well, the deadline was extended ‘after” it had passed to give them a second chance, but no one RP’ed in that extra day. Then in the next round, another match had both players no show leaving 2 regular matches and a last chance battle royal. So, instead of allowing the rules to decide the outcome, again things get changed around. The 2 regular matches are judged allowing the 2 winners to advance to the semi-finals, but then…get this… the 2 battle royal people that RPed (there was just the 2 of them), advance automatically as well. The stupidity of it all can be seen in the fact that the 2 regular match losers were the same 2 that beat the battle royal RP’ers in the last round, and yet are somehow deemed unworthy of advancing even thou they hold direct RP victories over the battle Royal RP’ers. Unbelievable! Ok, so now we have 4 peeps left in the Semi-finals, but only 3 of them post RP’s. Does the one match get a walkover like before? Nope, that would mean the tournament was being consistent, which by now, you can see, it was not. The organizer decides “15 DAYS AFTER THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED” to inform everyone that all RP’ers will advance into the finals. But that does not go over very well with two of the three and they voice their displeasure. Days later the organizer disappears, never to return, completely abandoning the Tournament.

A few more that I have encountered also has similar instances of trouble, like judging favoritism and role-play recycling, but I’m sure you get the point by now. But don’t get me wrong, tournaments are great things to have in the e-wrestling world… when they work. My point is that when things start to go bad, they really go bad.

As you read this, there even more Tournaments going on in the E-Fed world or are on the horizon. Will I be entering any of them? Not on your life. I’m done with e-Tournaments. The trends on how tournaments will unfold has become more than obvious and the odds of entering one where it completes itself without making glaring concessions is too great for my blood.

I stick to regular RP’ing, thank you.

Toodles!