I agree with Larry Hodges about Single Elimination stupidty at 5 star tournamnets

[2Spinny]

In his April 21 , 2021 blog , Larry Hodges brought up the issue of Single Elimination being stupid for 5 star events like US Closed & Nationals
I agree with him though I also agree (but to a much lesser extent) with Virginia Sung's point about difficulty in managing schedules & conflicts.

Nevertheless it should be possible to design events to reduce scheduling issues but still not use SE ( Single Elimination Format).
Single Elimination format in a sport like table tennis at any level from 0 star to 5 star event is mostly real stupid for most events except may be like the last stage events of highest rated events such as Open Singles or Doubles etc
At the very worst there should be at least double elimination if round robin is not possible.

Also you can design events better by being creative
Why does it have to be Over 30 & over 40 & over 50 etc ?
Can you do Over 30 & Over 45 & Over 60 & Over 70 instead ?
Can you at least do double elimination instead at least for some events if round robin makes schedluing difficult ?

[Jeff K]

I know lots of older players who don't bother to play in these large tournaments, if these events are single elimination.
Not worth wasting the money