Putting the "Bad" in badminton

[Aussie Willy]

I saw clips of this last night. Referee gave them a blast, an Australian official made an official complaint and 8 players got disqualified.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

[Anita18]

Bf and I had SUCH a blast laughing at them play so badly. It literally was as if they'd never played badminton before! At least they could have PRETENDED to play a real match! I (and my mom) was actually surprised the coaches didn't come up with THAT strategy when they determined they should try to lose. The tricky Asians forgot the most important part of the trick.

The swimming equivalent I came up with (since some suggested that many swimmers don't put 100% in heats) was if the competitors belly-flopped into the pool, flailed for 20m, and then gave up by the time they got to the other side. The thrown badminton match was THAT level of laughable, complete fail at your sport.

The spectators who paid good money to be there were likely (and rightfully) pissed though.

[maatTheViking]

I agree Anita - if you have watche any olympic level badminton, it was clear that they threw the match.

[Anita18]

I agree Anita - if you have watche any olympic level badminton, it was clear that they threw the match.

My bf had NEVER watched Olympic-level badminton, and it was still obvious.

[Aussie Willy]

Well the funny thing was when one of them hit it so gently that the shuttlecock wasn't going to go anywhere from the clips I saw.

You are right, you think they could be a bit smarter about throwing a match rather than making it so obvious.

I think the federation made a very quick decision on it through. Good for them.

[jlai]

These players have nothing to "lose" now.

[tchaikovsky_177]

The funniest part for me is the fact that the people who arguably benefit the most from all this is Tian/Zhao (CHN), whose unexpected second round loss was precisely the cause of these 4 teams tanking and then getting dumped out. Talk about a spectacular way of taking out your rivals

(and of course, the lucky 3rd/4th place Russian and especially Canadians who will now have a shot at bronze )

[moojja]

Well the funny thing was when one of them hit it so gently that the shuttlecock wasn't going to go anywhere from the clips I saw.

You are right, you think they could be a bit smarter about throwing a match rather than making it so obvious.

I think the federation made a very quick decision on it through. Good for them.

The problem is both sides were trying to throw the match. That makes it harder. It becomes a game of who can play worst. LOL

[Aussie Willy]

The problem is both sides were trying to throw the match. That makes it harder. It becomes a game of who can play worst. LOL

Yeah I loved that. One side realised what the others were doing so tried to do the same. Quite pathetic really.

[BigB08822]

It is absolutely hilarious. And sad. But mostly hilarious.

Maybe a quick fix would be to make it so that any loss means you are out of the tournament. This would eliminate people looking at the draw to see which bracket looks easier.

[tchaikovsky_177]

It is absolutely hilarious. And sad. But mostly hilarious.

Maybe a quick fix would be to make it so that any loss means you are out of the tournament. This would eliminate people looking at the draw to see which bracket looks easier.

It's always been that way in badminton before... they had a draw just like the tennis and table tennis draw, aka knockout tournament style. Top seed in the first half, second seed in bottom half. Then draw seeds 3 and 4 in different halves, and so on and so forth.

I am not sure why in London they suddenly decided to do it soccer style with round robin and pool play Presumably to give losing players a chance to play more matches and potentially win 1 or two before leaving the tournament... Who knows. Anyway, if they wanted badminton to be more exciting and be in the news, they succeeded

[Aussie Willy]

Maybe a quick fix would be to make it so that any loss means you are out of the tournament. This would eliminate people looking at the draw to see which bracket looks easier.

That is what it was. They introduced the round robin for this Olympics as a lot of other sports do it. However these teams are obviously not too smart if they thought throwing matches really badly was going to give them an easy path to the finals.

[Anita18]

The funniest part for me is the fact that the people who arguably benefit the most from all this is Tian/Zhao (CHN), whose unexpected second round loss was precisely the cause of these 4 teams tanking and then getting dumped out. Talk about a spectacular way of taking out your rivals

(and of course, the lucky 3rd/4th place Russian and especially Canadians who will now have a shot at bronze )

That reminds me of my first time playing a video game. It was Mario Kart of some kind, and I was still figuring out how to not crash into walls when my friends killed each other and I became the default winner.

[barbk]

I play badminton better than these teams demonstrated in those matches. Probably even a lot better.

Glad they got booted out. I still don't understand why winning isn't a helpful thing in pool play in badminton -- isn't it pretty helpful in virtually all the other sports that use pool play?

[tchaikovsky_177]

I play badminton better than these teams demonstrated in those matches. Probably even a lot better.

Glad they got booted out. I still don't understand why winning isn't a helpful thing in pool play in badminton -- isn't it pretty helpful in virtually all the other sports that use pool play?

Not if you knew beforehand the results of the other pool (which would not happen in soccer because different groups play simultaneously) and the world's most unbeatable pair ended second in their pool

[ioana]

I'm not sure how badminton rules and regulations work, but if a team were to forfeit the round robin game due to injury or whatever, would they still be allowed to play in the next round as long as they qualified even with a loss? Am just trying to figure out if there are other ways to 'cheat'

[escaflowne9282]

This really had me ; it reminds me of the episode of South Park where they kept trying to throw Little League Games only to find out their rivals had worked harder at playing badly .

[Aussie Willy]

I'm not sure how badminton rules and regulations work, but if a team were to forfeit the round robin game due to injury or whatever, would they still be allowed to play in the next round as long as they qualified even with a loss? Am just trying to figure out if there are other ways to 'cheat'

Oh but then it wouldn't be as much fun for us. However I think those people who paid good money to see the competition would rightfully be peeved off.

[Anita18]

This really had me ; it reminds me of the episode of South Park where they kept trying to throw Little League Games only to find out their rivals had worked harder at playing badly .

That episode was pointed out to me too.

[Skittl1321]

At least in South Park they were putting a lot of effort into pitching directly to the opponents bat or batting straight into someone's mitt. That takes serious game. This was a joke.