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American football has a similar problem. If the score is tied in regulation, then there is a coin toss. If the team that gets the ball first scores a touchdown,

• perl4ever 8y ago
  The rules in the NFL were changed a while back to prevent winning during the first overtime possession by a field goal, in the name of "fairness". That goal always struck me as self-contradictory. The fact that you've gotten to overtime, and that you have overtime, inherently means the teams are nearly equal, but we don't want a tie. The whole point of overtime is to prevent an equal score, so inherently it requires amplifying tiny differences and getting an arbitrary result. Trying to give the teams each an equal chance just demonstrates that people don't know what they want. It appears that in 2017, overtime periods were shortened from 15 minutes to 10 minutes, out of concern for the fatigue of extra playing time. If I was in charge, I'd just say no overtime in the regular season and go back to having ties like in the old days. That seems "fair" to me.
  • pdpi 8y ago
    Like you said — it should be about amplifying the skill difference (e.g. Tennis is phenomenally good at this.) rather than arbitrarily giving one ransom team a bigger chance at winning.
    • perl4ever 8y ago
      Amplifying anything amplifies the noise, and being tied at the end of regulation is prima facie evidence that the difference is just noise. Even after the fact you can argue about whether one team was better, or just lucky, and people do.