Comments on: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Do Sandbag

By: Round

Round — Sat, 04 Aug 2012 06:00:02 +0000

@Kelvin There isn’t always such thing as “superiority” and there definitely isn’t a thing like “deserving” in sports. There are match-ups and there is winning. NBA teams frequently tank games by resting their players to wind up in a particular draw of the playoffs to avoid the teams against whom they match-up poorly. Like paper scissors rock for example. Paper should tank games if it ensures that scissors and rock are in the other draw. It is smart to do so and it displays an awareness of one’s weaknesses and a commitment to winning. Even in the absence of a match-up issue, it is better to meet the Miami Heat in the conference finals rather than an earlier round, even if it doesn’t alter the odds of your winning.

By: Enrique

Enrique — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 18:54:53 +0000

My point exactly — sandbagging may offend one’s moral or aesthetic sensibilities, but it is not a “problem” per se

By: Kelvin

Kelvin — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 15:42:36 +0000

Two differences (that I don’t think justifies what happened but probably have to do with differing reactions):

1. The shirking in badminton was meant to avoid a difficult opponent. That is not possible in this cycling scenario. The Brits still had to race the same French team.

2. Shirking to avoid a superior opponent is tacitly admitting inferiority and not deserving of high achievement. Bagging for a restart in cycling is tacitly DENYING inferiority: “bad start isn’t our fault; we actually can beat those guys.”

Seems concepts of unfair play are not purely rule-based: there’s an expectation that outcomes reflect ability, and gaming the system while maintaining an illusion that ability still counts are less despised than gaming that explicitly shows inferiority. (This comment feels like it should be on Robin Hanson’s blog)

Personally, I don’t get why anyone should get a restart in cycling when it’s verboten in other sports.