[quote=@Descartes]
In Resurrection F, the entire reason Frieza was beat was because he couldn't maintain his transformation.

That said, Akira Toriyama is a hack and his writing his sub-par. Transformations are purely a plot device and power levels were Toriyama's means of making fights bigger and more exciting. It was cheap, but I loved every screaming moment of it.

I could see where the gimmick gets a bad rap. Transformation can still be pretty fun to use though. For instance, if it's a temporary power-up (for instance Kaioken) or just a change in power set (Like the various forms for Kamen Riders) and not an asspull as you guys seem to like to make it out to be.
[/quote]

People seem to forgot anime is basically fancy cartoons. Much like G.I Joe they'd get hit with a laser rifle and jump right back up again. Or Ichigo could get cut to pieces and loos a bathtub worth of blood but keep on fighting. Animations tend to only use injuries as a dramatic plot device in and of itself. 

This gives unwily people the tendency to think the transformations themselves lend to that second wind. When really it would have had the same result with or without the transformation. It just adds flare. Using anime or any similar media as the example of transformations for a competitive arena format seems short sighted to me. Anything from a cartoon basis wont work in the arena. Simply because cartoons (or any made up character in any format) never dies until the writer wants them to.   

Arena Transformation would be something completely different, past and copy from any media outlet tends to be a bad idea regardless of the topic.