CIS-2014 in Minsk.

We used to play like this somehow. Firstly, there is a chess-timer, then you can schedule the final battle, say for 227, or even start on an impossible patch. But removing HLs is overkill, which will significantly affect the presence of strong participants

We used to sleep less, eat faster, were less interested in cultural programs, and also didn't break Dragon Utopia on the 2nd.

As the practice of CIS champs shows, 227 is a day and a half to two days at our normal pace. One or two such games in a tour and the schedule is completely broken. Therefore, if a final battle is to be set, it should be for 147. But in SoD on the 4th week, the game often only enters the height of maneuvering, while a strict deadline for the finale stimulates the opposite: turtling in a corner and waiting for the deadline.

A chess timer is good, but if you shorten it, cries start from the other side - "we don't have enough time, make a human timer". And with the classic 4000+500 even in BT games end up too long in real time over a month; in SoD with a similar setup, automatically add +1 week to the duration.

Therefore, cramming SoD-XLs into the established format is violence either against the participants' brains or the organizers' brains or the gameplay. In my opinion, it's better to play something more tempo-oriented, freeing up more time for other activities. Especially since besides XL+U there isn't just SM - we also have Jeb, Diamond, Mini-Nosta, Anarchy; on these templates, it's problematic to drag the game longer than 1 month.

And we also have Alex, Cobra and other lovers of walking in the fresh air, spending an hour or two over delicious and healthy food, watching football, and in their free time from the aforementioned activities, DDing across the map and collecting skeleton-demons for a week, two, or three.