My fellow porg handler, Obiwein, wrote a well-thought out article on how to minimize the effectiveness of the intentional draw.  It laid out an interesting concept that incorporated a system that sports like baseball and football use to determine their final bracket.  Some players get frustrated when playing in a long tournament for 7 rounds only to have their last 2 rounds be meaningless because everyone ahead of them drew into the top 8.

Well, I have one thing to say to those well intentioned players

STOP COMPLAINING!!

If I’ve learned anything from playing 30 years of TCGs is that the optimal way to play competitive SWU is to try not to play.  

As so eloquently put by this internet user

I can’t agree more.  If you haven’t developed the competitive skill necessary to win games early enough that you can eventually stop playing games altogether, perhaps competitive TCGs simply aren’t for you. 

In fact, I think the SWU competitive system doesn’t go far enough.  I would argue that a draw should be worth 1 point, as it currently is.  If you played for 55 minutes and couldn’t finish 3 games, 1 point is all you deserve.  However, if you are off to a good start and you have the option to not play, that should be worth 2 points because only the most competitive of players can put themselves in position to not play SWU, and they should be rewarded for their lack of effort.

A normal draw is simply failure. You tried to play Star Wars: Unlimited and couldn’t finish.

An intentional draw is strategy. You successfully assessed the tournament standings (using the Porg Depot Top Cut Calculator), identified that playing the game represented unnecessary risk, and made the elite competitive decision to avoid it entirely.

Consider a seven-round tournament. Under my improved system, a player who starts 4-0 could simply stop playing SWU after Round 4. Three intentional draws would give them another six points, allowing them to finish 4-0-3 with 18 points.

Four rounds.

That’s it!

Why force our best players to endure three additional rounds of unnecessary game exposure in the game they’re supposedly the best at? 

That leads me to a new suggestion:

Improved SWU tournament scoring

• Loss: 0 points
• Normal draw after 55 minutes: 1 point
• Win: 3 points
• Intentional draw: 2 points
• ID negotiated in under 30 seconds: 2.5 points
• ID arranged before pairings are posted: 3 points
• ID arranged before the tournament begins: 4 points
• Never removing your deck from your backpack: Automatic Top 8

I believe this system truly encourages the competitive nature of TCGs by rewarding early favorable matches and speedy negotiations.  

For anyone who forgets, people against IDs have apparently never played a TCG at a truly competitive level. 

And what could possibly be more competitive than designing a tournament system where the strongest players are gradually rewarded with fewer and fewer opportunities to compete?  

And always remember

“If you came here to play, you’ve already lost.”