I posted this on another thread, but I would love to hear from the organizers if they plan on assigning favored lanes to assumed favorite teams again this time around.

Which was clearly fair for everyone. Why would my team ever enter a race off knowing that we will be put at a disadvantage by lanes and/or draws depending on the whims of the organizers?

This is so completely ridiculous. Either remove the “Sport” before the competitions or actually use standard seeding processes. Anything less than a completely random and independently witnessed draw for lanes and heats is total BS.

My prediction for this years races of… Very limited attendance.

What are your thoughts on this?

What are your thoughts on this?


My thoughts are that you think too much.

Good day.

learn to paddle and quit blaming the lanes!!

I don't think that is the point. It is all about the integrity of the event. I doubt the results of Welland or Montreal would have changed much for the top couple teams although the placing for the 2 or 3 through 6th may have.

If you look at Sudbury and non-seeded team won (OOPS) so obviously it doesn’t work and you cannot predetermine who the favorites are with certainty so how can you be sure that the lane assignments do not have an impact.

The point is, if you are going to do it. It should be fair. Anyone who opposes this or just says shut up and paddle or stop being a sore loser must be on a preferred team. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WINNING OR LOSING.

Mayfair or G&G will win the Central race off Premier mixed regardless of what lanes they get in their initial heats baring a catastrophe for both of them, but it doesn't change the simple fact that until they do win, they have NOT won and should go into the cattle cart for lane & heat draw assignments with everyone else.

To change it up a bit lets say I ran the event and wanted G&G to win. So I arrange the heats so that G&G would face Mayfair last and give Mayfair all the best teams on their side of the draw and the worst initial lanes for the first race of each distance. Would that be fair? Not far off from what was done in Montreal in favor of Wongs and Verdon.

The prerace seeding of teams by organizers, especially those with an obvious bias one way or another (but regardless of any bias) basically tells all the other teams “Thanks for coming. You are great filler for our event. You help keep the costs down for the teams we really feel have a chance to win. In fact we are so certain you won’t win, that we aren’t even going to give you a chance at the preferred inside lanes thus putting you at an even greater disadvantage strategically if not conditions wise as well”.

So again I say, it is not about whether or not the lanes actually make that much of a difference it is about the integrity of the process itself.

You can say that "you should spend more time paddling, and less time worrying" hahahah - but the poster is totally correct. The process should be fair or the validity of the sport gets undermined.

I don't think the organizers have to be super transparent about it (like randomly draw lanes before the race), but seriously, just role a dice for lane placements, it's not hard.

whatever.....

I agree with the original poster. I don't like what we saw from Montreal 2 years ago.

I too agree with the original poster. I also agree that only a total dimwitted moron (plenty around on this forum) would not understand the spirit of sport and sportmanship, and simply say "Quit complaining and learn to paddle"... or something along those lines.

Wish they had used part of that 20 million bucks to create ONE lane in ONE 500m+ completely sheltered pool. And perhaps an electronic timing mechanism too. And perhaps a water level meter too. And perhaps a boat weighing scale too. And perhaps a boat waxer too. And perhaps a water sucker too. And perhaps an electronic monitoring device to ensure paddlers are not kneeling. And perhaps another device to ensure coxes are not paddling either. And perhaps a super computer and retinal scans to ensure the validity of the crew. And perhaps a pool cleaner to remove excess artifacts that may skew results throughout the day.

Good. So we are in agreement.

It's just common sense. How can doing it any other way be supported with any kind of logical argument?

Do favored teams in the Superbowl get to chose to recieve the ball first in both halfs or get their choice of ends of the field for both halfs?

The whole topic is stupid and I am embarassed for our "sport" that we are actual at a point where this discussion is even needed. Shame on us all DBC.