Should circle contest have a time limit?

[SlashC]

After watching the variety phase from circle finals from Worlds 2014 and considering other extreme examples I've been wondering if it would be better in circle contest to have a maximum time limit per run (i.e. 50 seconds)...

I don't think allowing for infinite string length encourages interesting strategies. Right now you could choose lower difficulty tricks for two minutes and make all the other competitors cool down. Also, by using easier tricks to extend your runs it also discourages density and variety. I'm not saying that this was a particular problem in the variety around from this year's competition - I think all the competitors did fantastic. However, I did measure the number of contacts for each run and the string length significantly decreased over time:



I think with a finite time limit (i.e. 50 seconds) you may have players end up performing more consistently over the competition. I would rather see three 30-50 contact strings over one really long one and then two significantly shorter ones. Variety and density should also increase because the player will need to make each contact count. If the player is consistent enough to make it through the entire time allotment they can finish with a hand catch or a pass which I think is also more appealing from an audience stand point (as opposed to shredding till you drop). I think it would be amazing if a rule like this was implemented to see the bag go all the way around the circle without dropping effectively achieving a full hack in the highest level of competition.

[ianek]

i think it won't change anything regarding the quality of how much ''variety'' or ''density'' players will do. since our sport does not have money, players does not have a coach to make sure they use the best strategy, and also our sport is ridiculously difficult, that leads to our elite players trying their best but really often fails to optimize how to play in a Circle Contest. For example, in this year's final, first string of variety, Mathias did 14 ducking clippers out of 70 tricks, that's 20%, he also did 9 ripwalks, that's 13%, so 1/3 of all he hit in this first string was 2 tricks, it's definitely not a good strategy, he spent a lot of energy repeating tricks that would not give him a better score. here is a list of ''regular'' tricks he didn't use: swirl, reverse swirl, quantum set, torque, blender, dyno, symp illusion, symp swirl, double down, double pickup, barrage, double switchover, eggbeater. (+ pretty much all ''funky'' tricks: eclipse, flying clipper, rake, whizz, blink, pincher, etc.) so even if he did 70 contacts, this run was impressive because of his consistency and stamina, not because he had an amazing ''varied'' run, it wasn't bad, but very average for a Worlds final. my point is that i'm pretty sure even if you had a maximum amount of contact/time, Mathias would have done the exact same run but stopped when the referee would have told him to do so. and i don't have anything against Mathias, i have been noticing that exact phenomena since the beginning (9 years ago). since there is no big money involved, players mainly shred like they would do in the park, doing their thing and hoping it's good enough to go through next round. In the rules, it says something like ''having a good variety means using the most different tricks/components'', and nowhere in the rules it says ''do a long string and you'll win''. So players have the choice and power to optimize how good they do in ''variety'' and ''density'', but most of them don't. Also, it's more complicated for organizers to time each players' run. the simpler the better. players just have to be wise and stop when they get a bit tired in a run to keep their energy for later turns.

if you want a good example of a perfect strategy, look at Honza in Circle finals 2013.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpc0dO1x0v4) He obviously have tons of talent, but the way he decided to play was flawless. i think it's each players' responsibility to know the rules and come with a good gameplan.

[F[uns]tylin' Eclectic]

I like this idea a lot. I noticed this too. It seemed like the runs in the beginning for everyone but Aleksi (due to an unfortunate unplanned drop) got shorter and shorter as time progressed from being so fatigued from the previous long runs.

Incorporating time limits would make for more enjoyable runs with more "banger" tricks in them, more suspense from the audience (What's he/she going to do next!!?!)

But yes, I agree.

[boyle]

I think a circle time limit would make it more exciting, but potentially increase the drops. I think Ianek is also right, it's likely that the players would change their game much. I think the expectations of the judges (and the general rules) need to be reinforced a bit more (ie that the variety round needs lots of different tricks).