I think it would be a good idea to make the hourglass zone shrink over time so matches don't last as long. Loads of times I've been in loads matches where people just runaway to the outskirts of the map over and over again.
Making hourglass matches shorter
You control how long your matches are, if they're running away, then don't let them.
You can chain them, board them, ram them, you can let them mast you so they feel confident about fighting you, etc.
If you can't do any of the above, then you should stop trying to grind hourglass for levels/wins, and instead use it as practice. Use one fight to focus purely on chains, if you whiff all of them start going for boards/rams, then if you can't lock them down in 5-10 minutes, scuttle and go next.
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