duration of games at WHBPC

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#1

Hello dear friends,
Watching the final games of WHBPC we are a few that noticed something really strange happened:

The duration of the RastaRocket-Mongrels game (winner’s bracket one) is extremely long.
We took time to double-check it, counting only the “playtime” and trying also to let the clock turn for the whole game, the conclusion is that there’s at least 9minutes of playtime that shouldn’t happen. The result didn’t change anyway:
-at the end of “20min, stops for the two last ones” the score is 3-2 for RastaRockets.
-At the end of the goldenGoal, the score is 5/4 for Rasta Rockets.

The “only thing” that changed by adding at least 9min of playtime + a golden goal is that Quentin Bouchard injured himself, and couldn’t play the rest of the tournament. That’s a shame.

The few of us who noticed this situation think it is a really tough situation in a competitive aspect. at such a level, we’re not able to provide a clear duration game. We talk of extending the duration of the game of almost 50%. It is clearly unfair.

Even if the game result wasn’t changed, the rest of the tournament is. The two teams thatt played in the winner’s bracket final didn’t have the same amount of polo time behind them, because someone decided (or not) that one game should last longer than what was planned.

Was it a mistake? Was it to help a team win? Was it a lack of concentration? we’ll never know, and it is not the purpose of this message.

The purpose is more : What’s the point of a 40pages ruleset If we cannot afford ourselves the basics of any sports. What’s the point of travelling all over the world for such unfair situations ? Offering the same amount of time to every team, following what was announced is such a basis to offer a fair tournament, way more important and obvious than any calls from the ref …

The point then : How do we ensure this doesn’t happen again ?

Here’s the first tought we had: At any EU/NA/Worlwide competition level, we should provide a timeBoard that everyone can see. It might be a step forward for players who won’t have to ask every minute to the ref how much time’s left, It would also benefit spectators, who will get a better comprehension of what’s happening. And of course, it will protect us from such a situation, which ended to an injury.
If you guys have any other ideas on how to prevent this to happen again on the future, it’d be a pleasure to find a solution together

If needed, I can provide timecodes from the livestram, but you can also figure it by yourself.

I hope we all get how important such a situation is, but also how easy it could be to fix it in the future.

PS: I didn’t know where was it appropriate to post, so I created a topic. I don’t want to noise the thanksfullness of WHBPC topic :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#2

I just checked the game. Super weird what was happening with the time. Agree that this should not happen. A time board would be cool for such big tournaments for sure.

Just one note:
Bouchard got injured because he was fouled.
Correlation =/= Causation

7 Likes
#3

Score and time boards would be a first nice solution , for spectators and mainly for players, how much times a match can you hear players asking referees what’s time left…

Also said many times , more referee workshops and also pay them would give for sure more responsibility

4 Likes
#4

i think you find the solution with the scoreboard ! how much is this ? is it affordable or some impossible thing to get since its usually embeded in a stadium wall

1 Like
#5

Another related thing noticed while playing and then watching some games is that the „stoppage in last 2 minutes only“-rule led to very uneven amounts of playtime in different games… depending on the number of breaks (ball out of bounce, goals, fouls) and how the ref handled this (time allowed for a ball turnover, explanations of fouls given to players, stopping the clock or not)

The way refs usually handle resets is a bit ridiculous, explaining the foul, answering how much time is left to a player, changing the ball, 10 secs to get ready, 10secs to cross, and this every time the game restarts, there are games where 1/4 of the game time is wasted…

This is also pretty unfair and fan easily be abused by a team leading with 1 goal difference

As a solution I think we can

  1. stop the clock during the whole game, the time of actual play is what should count!
  2. get rid of „10sec to be ready“ altogether and give 5sec to reset for the team not in possession
  3. score/time boards will help here too, since they at least show if time is wasted or the clock is stopped
2 Likes
#6

glad someone else mention this.

that sbecause “no stopage of time until 2 last minutes” isnt a written rule and wasnt explained properly.

i had an assisstant ref in berlin that was completely new and i ended up doing time too because of that interpretation.

no stopage of time means : after a goal is scored, both teams have 20 sec total to reset.

anything else , the time has to be stopped !

  • ball out / ball swap
  • ref explanation of a foul
  • ref asking a player whats his name so he can write it down on a piece of paper
    etc

like i said in a previous post , on a 3v3 12 min game , if there are 6 stopage of time ( goal scored with 20sec resets, ball out etc ) you only play about 10minutes of actual game , so i would also vouch for completely getting rid of 12 min games format and set 15min as the bare minimum even for 33 format.

if you running out of light start earlier in the morning or be better at ref swapping or simply dont stuff that many teams in one tourney

or do one less swiss round

or sinke elim instead of double

especially for beginners and teams that go to tournaments to get “experience” its a very frustrating thing to not even have the time to warm up because the games are decided in the first 5 minutes

#7

Ser asistente de referí es también complicado cuando todo el mundo te pregunta el tiempo a cada momento (jugadores y espectadores). Me pasó que espectadores del otro lado de la cancha te exigen decir el tiempo restante y no puedes perder tu atención en eso cuando esta corriendo un partido.
Cuando no se cuente con un marcador digital visible, creo que podría ayudar a tener tiempos definidos para avisar el tiempo restante, dependiendo del formato de juego, por ejemplo: avisar a los 10 min, medio tiempo, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min, 30 seg 10 seg, incluso podrían ser alarmas de sonido, no sé.

2 Likes
#8

Would be great to take measures to prevent this sort of thing happening.

But for me is another reason why double elim in polo is so important, because inevitably mistakes are made

1 Like
#9

incluido es muy dificil gritar el tiempo fuerte cuando el publico esta cantando mas fuerte. quizas el uso de megafono puede ser efficaz