Originally Posted by
Keith D
At times... If there is a situation when they're in a neutral position a coin toss would be necessary, like if reg. time ended in 50/50, or a scramble, or something. Otherwise, I would say that is a fairly accurate statement.. If you have to choose between back and spider web, I have no issue with that, but if regulation time ends and you are in an offensive position, you should get to pick position first..
I don't think it's that black and white on which is an advantage. As the person who goes second, you get to make a strategic decision based off how fast you were tapped. If I was tapped in under 45 seconds, I'm going to go with spiderweb. If however I was tapped in over a minute, I might choose the back depending on how good I am there. The back usually takes time to work and find the sub whereas spider web can be more of an all or nothing position and offer a quicker sub.
There is also levels of strategy for later rounds too. In the second and third rounds I think it might be an advantage to choose going second. You will get to change your strategy based off how well they have controlled you and also based off how well they have defended. For example, first round my opponent chooses my back and gets 3 minutes of control on me. I choose spider web in the hopes for the sub and lose it at 45 seconds. Second round my opponent chooses back again and he controls me for another 2 minutes. Now I know I'm at a 4 minute deficit. If I know I have good back control I could now choose to switch to the back in order to catch up on time or I could decide that I will not end up catching up on time and need to sell out on getting the sub.
You also need to take into account that "being forced into going for a fast sub" is NOT a disadvantage. That is your advantage. You now know for sure exactly how much time you have to work with. If it's only 45 seconds, you know you have to work fast and cannot spare any control time. However if you would of went first, you would not have had this information and might of just decided to go slow and controlled, therefore losing on time without even having the urgency you should of had if you had known you were going to be tapped in x seconds.
The main and really only advantage to going first is if you sub the guy, you get to know how long you need to survive for. So instead of trying to escape and possibly leave yourself open for an attack by doing so. You can just focus solely on surviving.
Now you are claiming that Geo in particular got an advantage by going first. However Geo escaped before the time was out. So he did not use his only advantage from going first (surviving until time ran out). He still attempted the escape and was successful. Also it's pretty key to keep in mind that it took Geo a long time to sub Eddie. Eddie knew he had over 3 minutes to find the sub and he knew he HAD to find the sub within that time. So he both had plenty of time to find a sub in a controlled and slow form as well as had the crucial piece of info which was knowing he must find the sub. If Eddie had gone first, he would not have had either of these bits of info.
So I don't think the choice of first or second is quite as simple as you make it out to be and I don't see the argument for Geo having gained an advantage given how his particular overtime rounds played out.
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