I have played in about ten of these toureys. AND........
in half of them it took well over 4 seconds for the wheels to stop spinning and I swear in one of them I got about 10 spins total.
Also, when you hit the bonus round it takes way too long. So unless you get the bonus round is a sizeable win, your better off not even hitting it.
I noticed that basically when I win, so does everyone else that is listed in my standing window. MOST OF THE TIME we all win the same amount.
If the tournaments are free to enter, then there should be NO REBUYS. Financially, that would probably mean reducing the number of TOTALLY free tounaments. But they could recoup that by increasing the number of paid charging a nominal entry fee of .50-1.00
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM I SEE IS THAT THEY SHOULD NOT BE TIMED
Players with slower connections, slower processor speed, less graphics memory are probably at a disadvantage from the start. By allowing everyone to play out their credits none of that would matter.
I AM GOING TO PLAY A FEW AND COUNT THE NUMBER OF SPINS I GET. I WISH OTHERS WOULD DO THIS SO WE CAN SEE HOW MUCH IT DIFFERS BETWEEN PLAYERS
If you are getting spins every 4 seconds you are doing 1 second better than you should. I have done "certain experiments of an advanced nature" that show that the SERVER brutally enforces this delay.
With one of these advanced experiments on Tomb Raider, it is so effing OBVIOUS it is a deliberate rig at the server, rather than the "communication problems" MG pretend it is when players complain. This server enforcement was a recent addition, I know this because I carried out this experiment when I first played on my Windows 98 PC with NO graphics card, and was gobsmacked by the incredibly poor performance at Royal Vegas. I tried numerous system tweaks and found one that worked absolute wonders.
This experiment shows that the tournament system CAN give everyone excellent speed, whether dial up or broadband, but that MG have DELIBERATELY INTENDED these events to run so annoyingly slowly.
Not ONE SINGLE CASINO REP has uttered a comment in the various threads about this slowness. When the fix to enforce 4 second delays was implemented they messed up such that many players simply could not connect (the server had to do even more work in operating the enforced delay - it had to work out when the previous but one and previous spin requests had come in, and delay the current one by 5 seconds if trigger criteria had been met).
They have had numerous chances to "come clean" about this, but dont seem to want this fact out in the open. I have mentioned this before, but I don't think my theories are being taken seriously, so I invite everyone to try this advanced experimement.
Take a Tomb Raider tournament (free one is best - you are doing science, not trying to win)
Forget the reels, Just look at the clock.
1) Press "spin" every 5 seconds - all spins should go without any server delay. Features will interrupt the flow.
2) Press "spin" every 4 seconds - not everyone will be able to do this, and for some the tweaks may be necessary. There should be no server delays.
3) Add tweaks. Press "spin" every 3 seconds - there should not be many server delays, but you are at the limiting trigger for the MG fix. if you DO get a delay, it will be 5 seconds before the server returns your result, and the reels will just spin and spin and you will see the "waiting reply" indicator in motion near the credit window. You may also notice that seconds are occasionally "stolen" from your clock.
4) Press "spin" as soon as you can after the last reel stops (Look at the reels, not the clock this time). You will now find that EVERY SINGLE server reply is a 5 second wait. You will also see that seconds are occasionally "stolen" from your clock.
So "communication problems" MY ASS - they are covering up for what MAY actually be players noticing this server enforcement of 4 second spins, but there is no way MG will admit to this feature. Once players do enough experiments cycling between 1 and 4, they will be convinced there is much substance to this conspiracy theory, rather than it being down to players PC's, ISP's etc.
I tried this experiment either side of this fix, and can verify that on Tomb Raider it used to be possible to play out ALL 10,000 coins on the weekender in 4 minutes. With the server fix implemented this is now totally impossible. Further, it was EVERY TIME that I could, and after the fix it was EVERY TIME that I could not - internet communication problems DO NOT BEHAVE LIKE THIS, they are semi random, and if this was the problem there would be times where play was possible at the former speed, as well as times when it wasn't.
Timing does not matter with the weekender, there is plenty for everyone to play out all coins. It matters on the other tournaments though, especially with the slow speed of bonus rounds.