Well, isn't this an example of why Google are going in the direction the OP is complaining about? Why are you searching with a question? Are you hoping to find a forum post with this exact question or something?

I don't understand the game you are interested in, but you should be searching something like "Xball qualifying results" or "Xball playoff rules" or something. Instead, by asking a question you are expecting Google to be AI.

They know what people are typing in so it seems they are quite justified into pivoting from a search engine to an AI.