I don't understand why is everyone uoset about the group matches but this has been by far the most interesting Olympics to follow cause not much has gone by script (except for the Singles for the most part). And on top of all of this, this is just the beginning! The knockout rounds haven't even started!! Yet people on here are complaining about some players "throwing" but it shows that they may not be safe to do so!
how could that be? all 3 pairs won twice and lost once. The CHN twins is eliminated due to pt differences vs. the other 2 pairs. Since The Koreans lost to the Danes, Danes should win the group no?
Should be all points difference. Usually H2H is only used to split up ties that go down to same pt. difference and pts....at least in all other sports, which I now realize doesn't say much with the air heads sitting in the BWF
Nope. The 3-way tie rules are based on points and games. Not head to head. Only a 2-way tie rules are based on pure head to head results.
Concerning the playing to lose - Ahsan/Setiawan crashed out. Did they play to lose? Or are the favorited doubles pairs a bit nervous, maybe? There's a lot more tactical options in doubles, maybe some pairs prepared for their opponents specifically or had a sick day with perfect first three shots....who knows. Maybe some lost motivation as soon as they knew they'd advance for sure. Without proof, I wouldn't accuse anyone of losing on purpose, and I know very well how hard it can be to motivate yourself for a match that doesn't decide anything, and how much a slight difference in tension can affect your performance...all of a sudden you lose against opponents you'd beat with scores of 8-12 on a normal day, and still you can't really bring yourself to care...
Just like Lance Armstrong did, then. And he was on every substance known to man. Looks dont say s**t about whether someone is clean or not...and what type of test is done often decides what can be detected, and how long. A lot of anabolic steroids are laughably easy to cover up or even never detected in urine, for example. Iirc, EPO has a tiny window of detection, and Test none (in Urine).... When an entire country has been proven to cheat and dope systematically, they'll just have to deal with others showing suspicion towards those who are still allowed to compete afterwards.
On top of all this, in WD, you play an easy team and take it easy? It ends up biting you cause it comes down to point differentials. What if Boe/Mogensen took a game off of Kim/Kim? Their group would have been decided by points as well. This makes the Olympics much more interesting as now it's not always clear cut who makes it on. I'm sure many believed Boe/Mogensen was going to advance, maybe they did as well. Clely sure thought so at the beginning of this post. If that were the case, it comes back to bite you. We haven't even started the knockout rounds yet and by how things are going so far, it's really impossible to predict who will come out on top.
The level of competition in WD is basically a joke, thanks to those weird groups. Three teams in Group B were medal contenders, while Group A only had one real pair. Group C is also fairly weak in comparison, I have no doubt all three real pairs in Group B would've beaten the Malaysians. Why we have this shitshow of a system in place is a mystery to me. There's nothing wrong with 32 pairs competing in a bracket with 8-16 seeds. Sending only 16 pairs has MAD bias towards weak regions with that weird continental qualification and the limitations on when you can send 2 pairs. I'd rather see 32 pairs in a bracket, with 2 pairs from a country that has 2 in the Top 16, and only 1 **** pair from America and Oceania, instead of this. It's ridiculous and a mockery to unlucky pairs like Luo/Luo, who are clearly heads and shoulders above 2 pairs who will advance, but will drop out because they had the group of death. Correction: I guess the continental qualification thing is not a thing anymore, since I dont see any Oceania pairing. Still, how pairs 5-7 of the world ranking end up in one group is a mystery to me and a complete parody of fair competition. Group C pairs are ranked 4, 15, 24 and 30, compare that to 5, 6, 7, 31....unbelievable. While these are the current world rankings, they should be very close to the 'Road to Thirdworld Olympics' ranking. I dont believe any of the three bad Group C pairs were ranked higher at any point in their career, and if they were, they didn't deserve it. Side note: this should also teach some National federations a lesson - the Chinese to go by ranking and ability (no Luo twins, sorry), and the Indian to finally stop sending Jwala Gutta anywhere until she gets her BMI below freaking 35 (it's a joke, guys) and down to 24 or lower. You claim to be an athlete, behave like it. In case she actually is below that (which would be atrocious and indicate she has no muscle mass to speak of), I rectify my statement to '[...] gets her body fat percentage below 20%' (which is still high for a professional athlete). That's enough salt for one post.
By the way, who else is a bit happy that Chris 'I'm going for Gold' Adcock failed in groups, just like Christinna 'Fiar play is for others' Pedersen?
the russians are innocent until proven guilty and should be treated in that manner. we can't disregard them even though their country is doing shady ****.
