After a lot of years of observation and competition in combat sports I have both a somewhat objective view and personal opinion/application (yeah, yeah, just like everybody else, but this is my blog so deal with it :-)).
First the observations. In a nutshell, for tournament mode you definitely need to up your level of ''aggression" and "pressure." BUT working up too much emotion/"killer instinct"/super-aggression is usually detrimental to your game - you forget your game plan/strategy, you try to bully techniques when there are much better options available, you miss opportunities, etc. In other words, all that training you put in just got blown out of the water by all that testosterone.
Going super-aggressive can sometimes compensate for a lack of skill at white and sometimes blue belt level but it starts to taper off quickly. In the case of equal skill levels, I think being super-aggressive makes you wildly inconsistent and being inconsistent rarely gets you all the way through a large bracket. In the cases where you have more skill, going hyper is giving your opponent a gift.
Now the personal opinion/application. For me, I treat a tournament match like a "super" class roll. I'm keeping continual pressure, I'm taking everything I can away from my opponent and not giving back an inch.
Would I jump on something I knew would hurt my opponent (so out of position/balance that he couldn't tap before he broke). Probably not. To me a tournament is just a game (like basketball). It is a test of skill not violence. I'm there to make new friends and have fun.
I realize that not everybody shares this view, and when I think there are more people out to "hurt" me than there are those who want the challenge of a good "game" I'll probably stop competing.
The "killer instinct" only gets kicked on in a life/death situation. My life is not threatened in the least if I lose a tournament match.
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