I would be happy to explain. It's a question of probability. With fewer people in each round, the likelihood of any single match being the outlier you describe drops significantly. In Swiss, you are guaranteed that guy is going to grind down your tournament timing, whether or not he wins or loses. In bracket, it's only if he wins. Fewer matches per round means shorter rounds.

As far as your grinder format... I would much prefer a life total tiebreaker, than settle for a TIE. Also, a 256-person swiss format simply gives me convulsions.

A)  It's still his EOT, I assume?
B)  You're using your build of 5c Grimlong?
C)  What does your graveyard have in it?
D)  Do you know what your opponent is playing?

Not knowing any of the above questions, there are a few ways to play this.

I.  EOT break petal, Hurkyl's Recall him, hoping he doesn't have a Force of Will in his hand.  Then, during first main phase, play brainstorm to find a black source to ritual-necro ftw.

This is incorrect because it's so risky.  If he has force, you get screwed over.  If he doesn't, but you don't find a black source, you'll be digging for turns while he restabilizes.

II.  EOT break petal, Vamp for Lotus, play Brainstorm, getting Lotus and setting up draw.  During our turn, draw whatever, play lotus, break for black, play dark ritual, play necropotence.  If forced, hurkyl's.  If no force, play Mana Vault with 1 of 2 remaining black manas.  Then, play Hurkyl's Recall on his Colossus.  If he allows the necro and vault, but not the recall, draw 5 with necro, going down to 13 life (2 from the vamp tutor, and keeping 1 open for fetch/city of brass).  There's variance in this, depending on what we saw with Brainstorm.

[EDIT:  Arj, you can play your entire hand regardless of whether you draw a land or not.]

I think this is the right option.  However, there is a third:

III.  EOT Brainstorm, hoping for Chain of Vapor, Yawg Will / Black Lotus.

     a)  If we got Chain of Vapor, EOT vamp for lotus.  Draw Lotus, play Chain of Vapor on his dude.  If he Forces:

          1)  Play Lotus, saccing for blue, hurkyl's recall his colossus, hoping that you draw a black source in the next few turns and he doesn't have drain.
          2)  Play Lotus, saccing for black, playing dark ritual + mana vault -> Necropotence, etc.  We already went over this.

I would say the 1st of these two options is the better.

     b)  If we get Yawg Will, EOT Vamp for Lotus.  Begin Turn, Draw Lotus.  [Our hand is:  Hurkyl's, Mana Vault, Dark Rit, Necro (or another card that's better),   Lotus, Yawg Will.]  Play Lotus, break for black.  [1 storm, BBB floating]. Tap Sapphire.  [1 storm, UBBB floating].  Play Mana Vault with a B, and tap it.  [2 Storm, 3UBB Floating.]  Play Hurkyl's Recall on opponent.  [3 storm, 2BB floating.]  If he doesn't counter, play Necro and proceed to win game.  If he does counter with force, [4 storm, 2BB floating].  Play Dark Rit (obv) [5 storm, 2BBBB floating].  Play Yawg Will.  [6 storm, BBB floating].   Replay Dark Ritual  [7 storm, BBBBB floating].  Replay lotus, saccing for blue [8 storm, UUUBBBBB floating].   Replay Lotus Petal too.  Vamp Tendrils, Brainstorm FTW.

(hitting Lotus yields the same result, you just vamp for Yawg's Will then instead, obviously)

I would normally do II., that is, playing vamp for lotus, then casting brainstorm and seeing what I can do from there.  This provides for me the maximum amount of options with the smallest amount of risk.  I also have chances if he forces the recall in the five cards that I draw off Necropotence.  Hopefully one of the cards in his hand is not Time Walk.

While III has an absolute win in it, you're going to see 3 cards, one of which has to be Lotus or Yawg's Will - the chances are not good at all.

You're going to have to elaborate on the "that's the ballgame" part. How can you possibly imply that resolving a Mage naming Tendrils is the final nail in the coffin? You've stated that there is a healthy array of broken options with Long. Is it not conceivable that after indulging in say, a Yawgmoth's Bargain, a Will, or a Desire for as many copies as there are stars in the sky, that you would somehow find a tutor or the CoV itself? If naming card X with Meddling Mage prevents or at least stymies your opponent from casting any spell of relevance, would you not agree that there are situations where this is in fact the optimal play?

Furthermore, it happens often vs. GL that stopping one spell is good enough to win the game. You can't deny that you have to expend resources to cast a lot of Long's bombs, and often, if your bomb doesn't resolve, you don't have the time or the mana to set up again.

I love how everyone is so absolute in their answers here.

"You MUST name Tendrils!"
"Are you dumb!? You must name Will!"
"I'm not dumb! You're dumb! You must name blah blah!"

The correct card to name is always different depending on the state of the game. Are you going to name Tendrils when your opponent is stuck on 1 land and you have  Null Rod in play? Are you going to name Tendrils when you have a handful of Stifles? Nope.

The correct play depends on a combination of factors. How many cards does your opponent have? How many do you have and what are they? What's the board position? Who are you playing against? These are just a few of the questions you should be asking yourself before making such a decision.

Hi,
Why don't you consider to run 1x  fact or fiction and/or 1x rebuild and/or 1x gift ungiven main deck?

I know there are so few slots available but i think these cards are bombs or "business spells", as you call them.
Gift is a 2x tutor, interacts with Will, it's instant, so you can use it as a bait during opponent eot, it's blue
Rebuild, makes storm, it's simmetrical, so you bounce also chalices and rod, or stax permament, it's blue instant, could be cycled
Fact is simply ridiculous.

I appreciate much the use of pitch counters to have free access to bombs and mana (i mean cutting duress for misD), but I think this deck could be more powerfull if you fit some INSTANT cards able to break the game, because now imho its too much "sorcery speed", and misdirection doesn't help against opponent threats (other than ancestral), it's more usefull to protect my threats.
In this sense, duress helped to avoid opponents threats better

Fact draws 2-3 cards for 4.  Timetwister and Tinker draw 7 cards for 3.  Seems like a better deal to me.