Who wins IDPA?

[Indigo]

Watched my first match today and I think I can be competive but they were scoring time plus half or full seconds I believe for hits outside the center ring roughly 6 inches across shooting each target 3 times. Rectangle targets with a little square head on top. So in your collective experience... who typically wins or at least finishes near top? Is it a person who takes a few extra seconds to hit dead center every time? Or someone who goes really fast but with a bunch of half second add-ons? Are there any universal trends like that to help you formulate a strategy? Thanks in advance. I know the likely answers will include "the person with the fastest time and the least misses" but if you had to lean to one side or another which would it be? Can a person realistically shoot fast enough compared to another to overcome those deductions or are the times typically so close to each other that accuracy trumps speed?

[knkali]

what kills guys are Failure To Neutralize penalties and Procedurals. The speed to accuracy ratio depends on the scenario are knowing what you can and cannot do within your skill set. That is where strategy comes in. For instance, I will take a couple of bad shots and not try to make up for it and go for another target knowing that I saved a couple rounds so I can get shots on another target then the time it would take to do a reload and possibly improve my score. Gererally, I use IDPA for trigger time and do not worry about time per se. So in short, you have to think about round counts too. Some of the guys that run IDPA are fast and accurate. I find slowing down and making good shots and running the course smart will always put me in the top 50%. I know that sounds like it is not very good but the diff between positions is very close.

[Indigo]

Thank you for the advice I was kind of leaning toward that slower but accurate side but just wasn't sure if that was how things actually played out with others involved.