Well, when I joined the SPF back in 2006 and did a restart I decided to do it in HC, because I started with a single pass HC tournament. And I sooooo loved (and still love!) those kinds of tournaments, so I stuck with HC.
I really think that playing HC made me a better Diablo player. It is slower, for sure, but playing in tournaments with one hand behind your back really teaches you to use those skills you would never have used otherwise: Grim Ward? Conversion? Reanimate charges from Harmony Bow? There are so many strategies to succeed if you take the time to actually play with caution that I would have never discovered if I continued playing SC.
Also, like
@Babyhell said, I really do like the planning part about tournaments: Take the
In Training tournament for example. How can I best build my character to meet all the restrictions without deeding? I need a character that can
a) fight with a bow
b) make use of elemental damage/use an elemental attack
c) fight with a sword (or make good use of a sword weapon type, so Spirit counts, too)
d) fight with a Spear/Polearm
Then i take the characters one by one and try to piece together a workable build for each class and then decide which one to try (e.g. Holy Fire/Shock Paladin, Fire Claws Druid, Enchantress/Elemental Mastery sorc etc.). I often go for the "best" build to succeed, but I do enjoy whacky builds once in a while, too, that's why I like
@Vang's
Random Tournaments so much.
Also, losing a tournament character isn't the same as losing your lv 98.4 godly geared HC character...so if someone is more like the "invest everything in one character" type of player, SC is probably the better choice
But! I do also have one (unfinished) SC Druid with whom I inteneded to try PvP back in 2008 or something...never got to the point to actually try it though
And I do have to play SC in 1.00 in order to start a HC character