User blog comment:Zolnir/Flaw in Tournament Setup/@comment-189.134.137.179-20160317095605/@comment-25195920-20160317183042

Feeling the need to point out using Adam as an example of how one could have stopped the injuries and deaths in the tournament from happening is not viable as Adam's trick is likely tied into him Semblence, something that Miles and Kerry hinted at during a livestream, or rather refused to talk about.

Secondly, as you have pointed out, the participants are deliberately trying to hurt each other, how would you know when to step in? The combatants for the most part understand the rules and, surprisingly, don't seem to be as easily overcome by battle-lust as most people IRL do. I challenge you to name 1 single instance during the tournament, baring Yang and Penny's incidents, where a major or life threatening injury was almost certain to occur that was not caused by the person potentially sustaining the injury (I.E. Weiss's dive into fire is out as that was her doing not Flynt's).

Third, comparing the Vytal Tournament to real world sports is not a realistic idea due to the varied nature of those tournaments. Even in the sports that revolve around direct confrontation (MMA, Boxing etc.) there is some form of protective equipment, gloves for example, in order to avoid serious injury and none of them feature live weapons, be they guns or blades or whatever, in a direct confrontation. Not only does the Vytal Tournament have live and extremely lethal weapons (grenade launcher anyone?), they also do not have any protective gear beyond what each person brings to the battle and some of the fighters do not wear armor of anykind (Sun fights with his chest uncovered for example). The reason for that is that everyone posses aura and is trained in its defensive use. Even Jaune was by this point and i think we can all agree he was the worst fighter in the tournament. With that kind of catchall shield, why would you need any kind of protective gear. Even better, aura is apparantly easily monitored allowing the match to be called by that factor alone if one's aura drops below a certain point.

Next if probably my weakest point; as has been previously stated, this tournament has been running for nearly a century with no major (known) incident. After so many years without any problems, most people, including you Zolnir, would not really feel the need to have any security against something that just hasn't happened. Its really easy to buy into the idea that since it has never happened it never will happen. Why have a referee during this tournament when there has never been a reason for one, even at that first tournament when they kingdoms had just concluded a WAR.

Fifth, lets talk about the impossibility of referee one of the earlier matches, we'll leave the 1-on-1s alone for now. The arena is huge, seriously look at that thing, its easily bigger than a football field. I have a hard time believing any one person can keep track of everything going on in that arena at 1 time. In the 4-on-4 matches it would be imposible as you would have to watch 8 individuals and keep close enough to them to get involved if you spotted anything bad about to happen, if you were even capable tof seeing anything bad about to happen. Remember, some of the terrain in the tournament is specifically designed to obscure vision and nobody can stop an incident if they do not know there is one making a field referee impractical.

And for my final trick, lets look at both Yang and Penny's incidents. Keep in mind that the tournament was taking place in Vale (well above Vale) and that most of the possible referees such as Oobleck or Glynda, know Pyrrha and Yang personally. We'll start with Yang's incident since it is easier to understand. When Yang punched Mercury, they were standing maybe a foot away and the match had just ended with Yang walking away. Yang punches Mercury, Mercury goes down, whole thing takes maybe a second in our view time, possibly faster in their PoV. With the distance a referee would have to had maintained to not get in the way of the fight, it is highly unlikely even Oobleck could have gotten there in time to block that punch. Furthermore, Oobleck knows Yang and has worked with her before so it would have come as a shock that Yang would even do such a thing slowing his reaction time. next lets look at Pyrrha and Penny's fight. This one is easier for me to understand why no one could have stopped it due to the secrets surrounding both combatants. Remember, maybe 6 people present at the tournament (Ironwood, Ruby, Cinder, Mercury, Emerald and Penny herself) knew that Penny was an android and only a couple more knew about Pyrrha's semblence, with 3 of those who knew dead set on ruining things for everyone. With that in mind, who could have predicted that Pyrrha had such a trick and that Penny was just about the worst person to go up against it. The wires connecting Penny to her swords were thin enough that it was nearly impossible to see them until it was too late and Penny's dismemberment took about a second to complete real time as well. Add to that the fact it would be expected that Penny's aura would block that hit (remember, only a handful knew she was mechanical) then it becomes obvious why not even Glynda (who i give the best chance of stopping that) could have reacted in time to prevent Penny's dismemberment.