Problems with Group Stage Tournaments

So a discussion came up today about the LttP Randomizer Tournament that just got announced. Having just got a couple of runs under my belt, I thought about joining it, knowing full well I'd likely get destroyed, but maybe meet a couple people and get some tips along the way. Then I noticed however, that it was a group stage tournament. Now, I'd like to preface this entire rant with saying I have absolutely nothing against any tournament that does this; people are completely free to set up their tournaments however they'd like. But I'd just like to talk for a little bit about why I think using group stages in speedrunning tournaments is a bad idea.

First, most speedrunning tournaments seem to have a few different goals. I'd say the biggest goal is to showcase and foster a community, which happens regardless of format. Another really big goal most tournaments have is to encourage new runners to get involved, learn the game, and maybe stick around if they enjoy it. This is where I think a group stage is less effective than a simple single or double elimination format. I've joined a couple tournaments knowing full well I'd go 1-2 at best, but simply because I wanted to learn the game, or just get an idea of how I'd stack up against other runners. While that's something I could still do, it wouldn't take me 4 matches to figure that out.

This kind of leads into I think what is the biggest issue with group stages. For runners at the highest level, and runners at the lowest level, they end up with a bunch of matches that don't matter. It's safe to say that for most speedrunning tournaments, there's at least a couple of groups where you know for certain runners are gonna win the group, and most times, you can see people that aren't going to make it out. However, for the sake of fair seeding the rest of the tourney, it's usually required that every match gets played out, as seeding usually goes by average times. So oftentimes you end up with matches that just have no real weight on one or both of the players. If I'm already 3-0 or 0-3, the outcome of my 4th match is largely irrelevant, what's going to happen when the tournament moves to the next stage is gonna be the same for me, win or lose. In an elimination set-up, although unlikely, any potential upset has major ramifications, and you never feel like you are doing a race just to get it over with. I will say that for middle-of-the-road runners, being in a group makes things a bit more interesting as you'll likely have a race or two that can go either way, but I think this pro outweighs the con fairly heavily as these same runners would likely end up with a match or two against each other in an elimination style tourney.

Finally, and this may be the most important downside, is the length of group stage tournaments gets to be too long for most competitors and viewers. I think this has kind of been a problem with a lot of speedrunning tournaments as it is, but group stage tournaments seem to exacerbate the problem. At the beginning of a tournament, people are really hyped up to get going, viewers are stoked to watch some fun and crazy races, and even though there's a lot of matches going on, it all seems to happen very quickly. Inevitably however, there always seems to come a point where things slow down. Maybe there's a log jam with a bunch of people waiting on one race to get done, or perhaps the people left have a tough time scheduling a big finale or end up getting a bit burnt out from all the races. Multiple times people have either forgotten that tournaments were still going on, or that they finished, or sometimes tournaments just completely die and never officially end. I think having group stages leads to that point more often, and sooner, than elimination style. Instead of a couple people waiting on a match or two, you might have one group that still hasn't finished, meaning no one is seeded for the next stage. With extra matches for every racer involved, and some of those races having no bearing, the desire to perform well can fade from some runners, and they do the rest of the tournament "just to get it over with." While some of this can be fixed by keeping stricter tournament rules to keep matches flowing more, sometimes there's a special case that can't be helped. I think adding more matches onto what is already a long and sometimes arduous road through a tournament just isn't worth it.

Again, these are just my feelings as someone who has run and assisted with a few tournaments since they've begun getting popular. People are certainly free to run their tournament however they want, and maybe there are plenty of good reasons to use a group stage that just don't appeal to me personally. I'd love to hear any thoughts other people may have on this, whether you're an organizer, runner, or even viewer, as to which style you prefer and why.

-Glib

P.S. I didn't do a February update for SNES Pentathlon because nothing really important happened lol