1. What do you think of the new format for the Skills Challenge, which now uses teams instead of individuals?
David Menze (Editor): I don’t like it all. The whole point of the Skills Competition is to see which individual player has the best all-around skills in the league, not which team of randomly paired players can somehow band together for one night to go through an obstacle course and hopefully not mess up too bad. But, then again this new format is a way to add more players to the competition and also raise money for charity. So there’s that, I guess. But still, if it were me, I know I would much rather prefer the old format and fly solo, put my skills up against anyone and everyone. Competition is always better when bragging rights are on the line.
Ryan Donoho (Co-Editor): I think its smart. This event isn’t the most popular, so giving it a new spin is actually pretty smart. In the end those who want to watch will watch, so it doesn’t matter too much.
Wesley Morton (Senior Writer): I don’t really like it. It seems too forced, as two players without much in common are put onto teams. I prefer the old format.
William Perry (Staff Writer): Not a fan. I agree that they needed to make a change to the old format, but not like this. It’s a competition that’s meant to test for individual skills. It sets up a player like Damian Lillard, who won the contest last year, to possibly get dragged down by a bad partner.
Aaron Blue (Staff Writer): It is interesting to see the shift toward team-based competition in events that have been centered around individual performance in the past. The one flaw I could see occurring is the player with the best time in the contest get knocked out of contention for the championship round, because of their teammate. The likelihood of it happening is low, but it could hurt the competitiveness of the competition if it stays in place going forward.
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Coverage of tonight’s festivities will be televised on TNT starting at 8 p.m. (ET) with the Skills Challenge going down as the second event following the Shooting Stars Challenge. Click here for the Skills Challenge rosters.