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I don't exactly know what can be done to correct the problem, maybe add more lost souls to deck building rules (or making a requirement that says you start out win x amount of soul in a territory), still it can be really frusterating and it is hard to feel like having fun or fellowship when you just got anhilated by something you cannot control. Now, I am not opposed to letting newer player win, but on the other hand why should they if they haven't put much time into deck building. Besides that is what type A is for.

The problem with that is when you get a lousy draw and don't get defense.

And this is why I said a few pages back to split it. Some people obviously LIKE using turtles and other decks in a tournament setting, while others want to practice for real tournaments.

Make an offshoot called "Realistic ROOT" if this many people say they don't play because its not "realistic." You'd gain all those players back, and then people who actually enjoy using different styles of decks can continue to play in the other half of ROOT.

It's the ROOT with different time limits than a real tournament that should be an offshoot. ROOT is an officially-sanctioned tournament with RNRS points to be had. Why do we think it's ok to give it drastically longer time limits when the medium itself should make games even faster? Why does ROOT get silly house rules but TEAMS can't make Doubt more useful?

Why do we think it's ok to give it drastically longer time limits when the medium itself should make games even faster?

#1 it's ok because that was what the players voted for, and the leaders decided to let them have it.
#2 the medium does NOT make games faster.  It speeds shuffling, but it makes about everything else slower.  The cards are smaller, so it takes more time to figure out what your opponent puts on the table.  And motions that are very simple IRL (like putting a card on top of your deck) take longer to do within the RTS program.

Why does ROOT get silly house rules but TEAMS can't make Doubt more useful?

#1 whether the "house rule" of an extended time limit is "silly" or not, is obviously a matter of opinion.
#2 I TOTALLY wish that TEAMS could still have the house rule that made Doubt playable.  But I still support Rob's decision of course.

im GLAD to see a format that fosters a turtle deck...and this is coming from the guy that adheres to a strict policy of 50 card decks!

I applaud MKC for being willing to appreciate the opportunity provided to other deck types / player preferences, despite the fact that he doesn't share them.

#1 it's ok because that was what the players voted for, and the leaders decided to let them have it.

No, it's not. 1 hour got the most votes. Regardless, that was a while ago. Open the polls to current players again and let's see what happens. And while we're being consistent, let's let Redemption players vote for how long the time limits should be at other official tournaments as well. Oh, and let's vote on giving Split Altar an errata. Then let's vote on whether Damsel is a male or female. When we've had all those votes, we can vote for making T1 63 card minimum 6 LS to win. And to cap it all off, let's have a vote on what, if any, gender Faithful Servant should have. To make the voting skewed like it was with the time limit, we'll make the options "male," "female," or "genderless." Then, when Male gets 30 votes, Female gets 20, and genderless gets 10, we'll go with genderless because it's in the middle.

In case you couldn't tell, that rant was split into three parts. First being, the people who supposedly voted the 2 hour time limit into law in ROOT don't play anymore. If we had the vote again, it would be much shorter. Second, since when do we vote for stuff? Third, the original poll was hugely flawed because it had 3 options and the one that got the most votes didn't win. 2 hours was not the median, since the vote was 1, 2, or no limit. 1.5 hours was the median, yet we got 2 hours even though 1 hour got the most votes. I'm not necessarily wanting to die on the hill of a 1 hour limit (even though, as an official tournament, that's what it should be at the very most), but I agree with RTSM, 2 hours is WAY too long, and an 1.25 hours is a tolerable compromise.

the medium does NOT make games faster.  It speeds shuffling, but it makes about everything else slower.  The cards are smaller, so it takes more time to figure out what your opponent puts on the table.  And motions that are very simple IRL (like putting a card on top of your deck) take longer to do within the RTS program.

Yes, it does. Shuffling and searching a deck physically is the longest operation in a real game, especially with a large deck, and RTS makes it take seconds instead of minute+. Many, many other operations are made marginally faster as well, such as D3 (just click a button), return to hand (right-click and select, no need to arrange hand), and even playing cards from hand (double-click, no need to grab with hand not holding the cards, and in bigger hands, sift through and grab). The operations that are made longer are infinitesimally so. Even the slowest players can right-click and select in under two seconds. The only operation that takes significantly longer is revealing top deck to play, and even that still only takes five seconds. As for "time to figure out what your opponent puts on the table," that's bogus because clicking on any card will bring up its text description, on your side of the field, in bigger font than would be in even a normal redemption game, not to mention everyone playing ROOT right now knows all commonly-played cards by art. And if someone plays a card that people wouldn't know just by looking at it, they also wouldn't know it just by looking at it in a real game.

#2 I TOTALLY wish that TEAMS could still have the house rule that made Doubt playable.  But I still support Rob's decision of course.

Let's vote.

I voted 30 mins in that poll and that still stands for me.

The data in that thread is quite amazing. Almost everyone said they expected games to take 1 hour, yet voted for no time limit. Also, the people voting then are not the people who would be voting now per se. Furthermore, that poll was taken when finding online games was much easier, and possibly the mentality of superturtles that caused everyone to stop playing online will have run its course even with some of the people who remain.

We have a chance to solve two issues at once here. If we have a reasonable time limit on ROOT, more people will be able to play. I have a fairly lax schedule and I even find it difficult being able to play when I know I may have to devote 2 hours to it. A 1 hour time limit is still 15 minutes longer than a real tournament (surely, prof, fast shuffle/search/draw at least mitigates how slow RTS play is in having to point and click down to at least 15 minutes?), and most people can find one hour in their schedule 3 times a week.