Thanks for your input on the discussion. Let me say that I agree with most of what you say. My only concern is that "easily playable with one set" is not really objective. What you or I consider easy may be different. Some people may have a problem having to mix colors to play a chess-like game. Some other people may find it perfectly ok. It sets an arbitrary distinction.
Talking about pyramids, you normally don't buy them for just one game, but for the versatility the system offers. If the only Icehouse game I like is Martian Chess (as an example) I would never buy two (or three) Treehouse sets. I would just use other tokens to play the game. To me that's easy (as I have loads of dice laying around) and it wouldn't make the gameplay unconfortable or mean any extra effort. But all that should never make Martian Chess unfit for a 2HOUSE competition, even thought it's easy to reduce the number of pyramids required to play the game.
I think I'm making a valid point...
In fact, to continue with David's game. Let's say I use pyramids for the player pieces and chickens and numbered coins for the spectators. As spectators can't trample player pieces, stacking between the two types of pieces is not a problem, because you can easily place a pyramid on top of a coin, but you don't need to place a coin on top of a pyramid. The game may even be easier to play because now it's very clear which pieces are allowed on the whole board and which ones are not. Should that make the game unfit for the competition? It really makes the game pretty easy to play with one set.
I still think any game that is best played with 2 sets should be left into the competition. Then the judges should use their own judgement and score games as they see fit. If I think a game's 2 set restriction is totally artificial, I will give it less points. But at at least this way, that judgment is left to all of the people judging the competition, not just one person.
This is what I believe David is trying to
communicate to you.
It may be so, but using allegations and false accusations is not really the way to do it...
Cheers,
-Jorge