The difference is that the aerial cup is a very quick cup and people have done their best to play their games before the deadline.
Not so much in this cup. This cup took half a year to get as far as it got. As you can see in the cup, I've let people go to next rounds with freebies (despite gross violations of the deadlines put into place) and I've had to continously remind people to play their games.
I've told the participants at the start of the finals:
If I don't see anything happening and the games aren't played before the deadline, I'm closing the cup without handing out medals.
I've sent people several reminders for the finals but all I saw here was one post where no time was even suggested (Just a whole day, because you know, everybody stays on WN for 24 hours in a row and is available all that time
Just like in real life!)
The bottom line is: they didn't really seem to care for this cup anyway (and if they did, they sure had a poor way of showing it).
What would make you say I would just close the aerial cup if it were up to me, anyway? (what even makes you think I need to do anything about the aerial cup?
HHC seems to have everything well under control there).
I make decisions based on the cups individually and take as many factors into account (which includes the goings-on of previous rounds). You're only looking at one round - I'm looking at the entire cup. This was not an active cup and they didn't do a lot with my warnings.
To be honest, I don't think people will take deadlines very seriously if there's no consequence to not making the deadline without notice.