Preventing kicking out of players

[dgjxqz]

I suggested in another thread that instead of giving certain amount of total time for the entire game, each turn has a shorter thinking time and a player doesn't play when it is over force a random move upon him.

[FlyingArrow]

In multiplayer elimination the problem appears to be even worse.

4 player, eliminate the bottom 2. If someone times out, that player is eliminated. One of the other 3 are also eliminated. There's a tie, but only 2 advance so someone is apparently dropped randomly (?). Maybe by lowest ELO or last to sign up for the tournament? Not sure what the criteria is, but one is dropped from the tournament - and it's because a different player timed out.

[Affensohn]

In multiplayer elimination the problem appears to be even worse.

4 player, eliminate the bottom 2. If someone times out, that player is eliminated. One of the other 3 are also eliminated. There's a tie, but only 2 advance so someone is apparently dropped randomly (?). Maybe by lowest ELO or last to sign up for the tournament? Not sure what the criteria is, but one is dropped from the tournament - and it's because a different player timed out.

Both not possible since it even affected the host of the currently running Next Station London tournament. Must be randomly, and that's really bad.

Also, once achieving negative times means you can continue if your opponents let you, but they could suddenly pull the trigger before your last move depending on how they stand. Would be better to have like 30h total plus 1h for each new move, deleting your negative times after you fetched your move later.

[Affensohn]

Now someone who's in last place "skips" the player who was out of time, avoiding a loss, and the player who was in first feels cheated.

Sometimes, people just get timezone screwed (the player before you in turn order always plays just after you go to bed).

Since BGA doesn't want to have referees adjudicating abandoned games, there's no other reason. For some bizarre reason, BGA refused to implement a "Fisher Clock" system for tournaments, which would eliminated almost all the problems. (In a FIsher Clock system, you get +n hours per move taken, with a maximum bank of a few days.)

(That's what I meant with my previous posting.)

My solution is that I only play multiplayer elimination tournaments. At least there, the slow players should get knocked out in the first round.

Doesn't work when 2 players get ejected, see above.

[FlyingArrow]

Seems like BGA has really messed up on the timing rules for multiplayer tournaments. Two-player tournaments should be just fine.

Or - there's a "don't be last" format running right now. In that case, if you time out you get kicked out... and only last place is eliminated. At least in that format only the slow player is affected.

In a 4player Dice Forge tournament right now, and in round 1 one player timed out. Two of us advanced to the next round and the other player was randomly eliminated along with the one who timed out.

[FSKFSK]

If it is a "2 of 4" multiplayer elimination tournament, and 1 player times out, the tournament engine will randomly pick 2 of the 3 players to advance to the next round. That is unfair. A better solution would be to replay the game with 3 players (if that's an option for that game), or to advance all 3 players.

If it is "2 of 4" and two players run out of time, only 1 will get the kicked penalty. The other player who ran out of time will still be eligible to be randomly picked to advance.

I just accept it as a risk. After the first or second round, there usually only are players left who are actually playing.

[FlyingArrow]

I'm in my first tournaments right now. The timeout rule is ridiculous enough that they may be my last - at least for multiplayer games.

[FSKFSK]

You should look at the time controls for a tournament before you sign up.

Also, some games are great for turn-based mode, such as games like 7 Wonders where everyone takes their turn simultaneously. Others are horrible for the format, such as a worker placement game or a game like Space Base where you have to choose your abilities every time an opponent rolls the dice.

[FelixTHM]

This is indeed a serious downside of current tournament play. It makes 3p and 4p games literally unplayable if you're a high elo player, since timing someone out and grabbing a tie for first is obviously the most dominant (and uncounterable strategy). I've been in 10/12 day tournaments with the game 97% complete and 4 or 5 days remaining, but one player gets kicked out once he reaches -10 minutes by one of the other two.

I know a lot of people don't care about ELO, but it's extremely unjust that the current rules allow undeserving players to cheat large amounts of ELO from top players.

[Mathew5000]

Here's a suggestion that would address the problem: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=35239

If you agree with it, be sure to vote in favour.