Improve FAQ to better describe game types

[goldensmith]

The FAQ is missing lots of information that would be helpful for noobs. Things that are hard to search in the forums because they return too may results (and therefore BGA shows you zero results)
I’m completely clueless about:
*what arena is, how it works?
*How do tournaments work?
*turn based game details: you start with how much wait time? Are the ones with listed “between these times” coded for each person’s time zone? (I read somewhere that maybe they aren’t)

[Meeplelowda]

The FAQ is missing lots of information that would be helpful for noobs. Things that are hard to search in the forums because they return too may results (and therefore BGA shows you zero results)
I’m completely clueless about:
*what arena is, how it works?
*How do tournaments work?
*turn based game details: you start with how much wait time? Are the ones with listed “between these times” coded for each person’s time zone? (I read somewhere that maybe they aren’t)

There are these topics in the FAQ about Arena:

The Arena (competitive mode)
What is Arena game mode?
How does it work?
What if I do not care about competitive play?
What are the rules of Arena Mode?

What clarifications do you need?

But agreed, tournaments could be described a bit better and there's no discussion of the different tournament formats, and how increments work in turn-based timing is not addressed at all.

[GeraldineMerida]

Turn-based games that only run between specific hours do show up in your own time zone.

What may be confusing you is that tournament descriptions list the playing hours in the host's timezone. (Though once the tournament starts, you can see the playing hours in your own timezone if you go to that game page.)

[goldensmith]

Thank you for that clarification. I saw a forum comment about the times being for another player’s time zone so I was ignoring all turn based games that restricted time.

[goldensmith]

There are these topics in the FAQ about Arena:

But agreed, tournaments could be described a bit better and there's no discussion of the different tournament formats, and how increments work in turn-based timing is not addressed at all.

Thx! I forgot arena was there because nothing was listed about the other types of games.

Since I have only played real time and turn based, I don’t really understand the difference between arena and tournament?

[Meeplelowda]

Since I have only played real time and turn based, I don’t really understand the difference between arena and tournament?

Arena games are single games. There are various tiers (depending on the popularity of the games) that you can work your way up through to reach Elite, at which point there is an Arena-specific rating (separate from your overall ELO for that game) by which you are ranked for that season. The Arena rating resets every season, and everyone gets bumped down a certain number of tiers from what they reached the previous season and have to work their way up again. Off the top of my head, a season lasts about 90 days.

Tournaments are a series of games that can be in various formats such as bracket-style elimination, Swiss, round robin, and group stage / elimination stage hybrid.

[goldensmith]

There are various tiers (depending on the popularity of the games) that you can work your way up through…

Tournaments are a series of games that can be in various formats such as bracket-style elimination, Swiss, round robin, and group stage / elimination stage hybrid.

Once you get to silver or gold, if you lose a ton of games, do you ever get downgraded back to a lower tier?
Thx for helping me understand how tournaments work in comparison.

[Meeplelowda]

Once you get to silver or gold, if you lose a ton of games, do you ever get downgraded back to a lower tier?
Thx for helping me understand how tournaments work in comparison.

There is no relegation during a season. The floor is 0 shields (or whatever those things are) within a level, so once you're gold you can't fall back to silver during a during a season. I keep emphasizing during because everyone is relegated to a lower level once a new season begins (the details escape me but they're around if you hunt for them), and you have to work your way up again.

[Two-Sheds]

Please vote for this bug report to encourage the admins to update the Tournaments FAQ:

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=61176