[quote=@yoshua171]
<Snipped quote by Crimson Raven>
Ah, yeah I have seen this happen before as well. Often some easy measures of certain skills (in bleach: Hoho, Hakuda(hand to hand combat) Zanpakuto(ability to wield it, rather than its abilities), reiatsu/reiryoku, and Kido tend to help with that a lot.

Having a measuring stick that's the same for everyone helps figure out who is good at what and assist in making sure that someone who has better swordsmanship than someone else wins in a sword clash (barring special circumstances and tactics) helps. That way you can objectively go “Oh, your character is faster than mine, alright, so I won't be blitzing them or vanishing from sight unless it's an ability or I trick them with clever footwork and obstacles.” Etc etc etc. So on and so forth.[/quote]

... at which point you're working out the outcome beforehand anyway. :P