Daryl sure nailed this issue on the head and it happens in Thermal Duration as well as slope. TPG tried a format very similar to the "seeded Man on Man" at the Toys for Tots contests a few weeks ago. The only variation was that we flew only against competitors in our own respective classes (Masters only fly against Masters, Experts only against Experts, Sportsman only against Sportsman, etc.). As predicted, the Master pilots took turns burying each other and a pilot from a lower class rose to claim the victory. Obviously the overall winner never had to fly against any of the Master pilots and posted a perfect score (landing points as well as flight points were normalized). I guess this format depends on your objective. If the goal is to identify the best pilot for the day, the seeded MOM is too biased and the results will be skewed. If the goal is simply to enjoy a wonderful day of soaring, then it works fine. If nothing else, it's certainly good for a morale boost for the less capable pilots as they actually have a chance of winning (I'm not bitter either).
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