David Sirlin is a game designer responsible for much of the balancing in Street Fighter HD Remix, one of the top competitors in fighting games in the USA, as well as one of my favourite writers on the Internet. Evidently the WD situation has been so extensively reported that he has decided to weigh in as well.
You can read the entire article here: http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/8/1/playing-to-win-in-badminton.html
On a related note, the ridiculous rule upon which the players were disqualified should absolutely be abolished, and Sirlin explains why as well: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/what-should-be-banned.html
I completely agree that fake matches make a mockery of the tournament. This is so important that one of the MOST IMPORTANT considerations when designing a set of tournament rules is to minimize the chances of fake matches occurring.
If you think you have an easier chance of beating team Y, you absolutely should lose on purpose. If you don't, you aren't playing to win, and you are kind of a bad competitor. You also happen to be playing in a tournament with absurdly bad rules.
It's an embarrassing time for Olympic badminton. But not because some players lost on purpose—because someone created horrifically bad tournament rules and then tried to blame the competitors for playing to win.
You can read the entire article here: http://www.sirlin.net/blog/2012/8/1/playing-to-win-in-badminton.html
On a related note, the ridiculous rule upon which the players were disqualified should absolutely be abolished, and Sirlin explains why as well: http://www.sirlin.net/ptw-book/what-should-be-banned.html