I agree with character lock, but not variation lock.
All arguments that say lock both or don't lock both are assuming that the variation you are picking will have multiple 3-7s that are easily accessible.
However, locking the character but letting the winner still pick his variation (albeit first) will let them have the best odds of not being outright counter-picked.
Lets assume every character, and every variation, has a 3-7 losing MU against every other character in every other variation. In this case, no matter what the P1 side picks, the P2 side will counter.
This is the train of thought most people are following. This is not how it works.
Characters, barring 1 or 2 specials, are mostly the same. They have the same mobility, the same strings (for the most part), and so on. Only the few differences will make a change, and for a lot of character, it won't cause a 3-7.
Lets take Kotal and Quan, for example. Against Quan's portal buff, Kotal might take sun because sun beam would deny him that space. Is it a good countermeasure? Sure. Does it make the MU 7-3 his favor? Not necessarily.
So picking Kotal/sun as the winner wouldn't necessarily be counter-picking the loser since he can pick a different Quan, but the likely hood of Quan having a variation that counters Sun is also unlikely.
You'd have probably like... a 6-4, a 4-6, and a 5-5. All winnable.
Winner shouldnt get the advantage of counter picking a counter pick. It isn't fair for the loser.
My point exactly. This is assuming that every variation outright counters some other variation on every other character. That's not a game with 90 characters, that's a game with 3 archetypes and a rock-paper-scissors flow.
Some characters might suffer in certain MUs, but it be made better through one of their variations. This solves the counterpicking problem because, say F/T loses to Sub-Zero.
While the Ruthless and Lackey variations would fall way short if SZ picks Cryomancer or Unbreakable, Vicious would hold its own decently well against at least some of them.
So instead of watching Torr struggle in whats potentially a 3-7 MU, he has a chance to at least make it a 4-6. These numbers aren't official, but hypothetical.
This isn't the player who win getting advantage, rather its ensuring it doesn't become a first-to-win scenario, where the winner of the first game will win because he has more counterpicks than the loser did.
