WTT Macao "Innovations"

Hi!
Anyone else feeling a bit disappointed by the touted "innovations" in WTT Macao?
I'm finding especially the Sudden Death Rules dissapointing.
It does away with all the tension of a game going on to 15-15 or even further.

What do others think?
Maybe I'm in the minority on this one.

I'm normally in favour of changes. I am in doubt with this one...

I still hear from people "from the real world": OK, so you play frist to 11? Not to 21? Only two serves each??
Ok, but this is somthing from your club or national rules. For sure in international matches they use proper rules??

This is starting to fade now, and people are more or less adjusting to a standard "how-to" set of rules.

What happens when we start to say "In this game you only need to win with one ball, but in the next came you need to win by two". These are "Calvinball-rules" (Calvin and Hobbes), where it seems like you are making up the rules on the go....

My othere concern is the excitement. 10-10, one serve each, win by two is a magic concept. You can get several "live or die"-points in a row. Why settle for one magic moment, when you can get 3-4 or 5-6??

Have you guys ever ever seen a horror movie where the hero gets a "golden point" and the monster is gone forever? No of course not!! You need to battle the monster maybe three-four times, and it keeps coming back! This is the true nature of excitement!!

(Maybe Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, whip vs gun scene...., but that is a refreshing exception, not the normal condition....)..

Yes, I thought the rule structure seemed complicated.

Wait what. So the final is best of 9 rather than best of 7?

first to 8 is nonsense

I don't know if this is going to happen but I would like a tournament with only 1 single event.
Only the singles, where both men & women can compete to win the title of the best table tennis player.
It would be interesting to see how the girls would play against the boys and viceversa. It would be fun.
I'm sure that the women are able to win even against top male players.

Lesser points, less chance for players to adapt. What's there to like?

Ikr. It's really sad actually, because I love the sport.

They have done this in the highest swedish division. Do not know what people think really.

They just have to improve the camera angle and give more infos about players etc, not change the rules :S

Well, it is of course possible to do this in a good way, maybe especially in a league. UTT had a system where every game in every individual match counted, and you could end up with 7-7 in games in the team match, and one rally to settle the team match. That was rather clever and interesting.

If you just go from "ball difference two" to "one", you alter tactics, you may alter the win/loss quota for who is going out of the group in a round robin etc.

Tactics: Service, receive or side in the different systems? 7-7 is different from 10-10....

IMO, the reason for sudden death points is to increase pressure (CNT does this all the time in their trials) and also to make the length of matches more predicable and thus more suitable for TV broadcasting.

But nobody worries when the Tennis runs overtime...

Originally Posted by TTLOVE

I don't know if this is going to happen but I would like a tournament with only 1 single event.
Only the singles, where both men & women can compete to win the title of the best table tennis player.
It would be interesting to see how the girls would play against the boys and viceversa. It would be fun.
I'm sure that the women are able to win even against top male players.

Does this happen in any other sports?

I take that back. Upon closer look the system guarantees tons of close matchups and high stakes for even those seeded 5th to 8th. Just not a fan of the scoring system but keep everything else next time.

I'm ok with sudden death points, I'm ok with having to get two points advantage in the last game.
But how are they going to explain to audience that some games ends at 8 points and some at 11?
And final match till 9 games? Really? They cannot make people watch 7 games match and now they are changing it to 9? Do something with tv/youtube/whatever broadcasting first, then change the length, otherwise it is useless thing.

Anyway, I don't see how those changes can attract more people to watching table tennis (if that wasn't their goal, then why do they ever bother with those changes)

I think they should roll dice to randomly determine how many points are required to win .

The new rules are confusing, unnecessary, and hurts the game. The sudden death point means that at 10-10, an unlucky net or edge can end the game. the lucky 8 and the sudden death makes games shorter. This makes it harder for players to showcase their skills and give spectators less content.

From a best of 5 to a best of 7 to a best of 9 game, the change is too significant and distracts from the game.