Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

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kellyfish
Posts: 4
Joined: 20 September 2022, 03:19

Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by kellyfish »

Seems to happen nearly 100% of the time when someone with a rating of 300+ gets randomly matched up with me, they will decline the matchup. Even 2 or 3 times in a row if we keep finding each other as players looking to get a game in. Why is this?
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Jellby
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Joined: 31 December 2013, 12:22

Re: Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by Jellby »

They have some bad (or unwanted) experience with you (and don't want or don't know how to use red thumbs), or they're just preying on lower-rated players, hoping to get easy wins (and don't want or don't know how to use table restrictions).
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kellyfish
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Joined: 20 September 2022, 03:19

Re: Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by kellyfish »

Oh. I don't know of poor feedback that I've received but perhaps I have.

If it is the case of trying to only play against low-rated players, that seems like cowardly path to choose. But I suppose everyone if free to do what they will. Wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong. I was assuming they were trying to find a higher rated player for more competitive play (perhaps being rewarded more for wins against better opponents, etc. I'm not sure how the scoring works). I wonder why they don't specify such preferences in game settings.

Thanks for the feedback.
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Romain672
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Joined: 05 April 2016, 13:53

Re: Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by Romain672 »

Jellby wrote: 03 October 2022, 20:54They have some bad (or unwanted) experience with you (and don't want or don't know how to use red thumbs), or they're just preying on lower-rated players, hoping to get easy wins (and don't want or don't know how to use table restrictions).
You can't restrict tables and not allow players of your level.
valkyrie0one
Posts: 1
Joined: 18 April 2022, 03:36

Re: Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by valkyrie0one »

There are a couple reasons - but first of all, I know that being on the receiving end of this doesn’t feel great, and I hope this explanation will help allay that feeling.

So, the scoring system: if you’re a player with high ELO & you lose to a player with low ELO, the system penalizes you by a lot of points - like, 13-15, usually. And because backgammon is a game that is highly determined by luck, even the best players will lose about 35% of the time. This means that your ELO can nosedive pretty quickly if you have a run of bad luck.

What this means for matchups - So, there’s a couple ways to look at this: either decide not to care about ELO & just play all comers, or decline matchups with players who have much lower ELO in order to cultivate & maintain one’s own high ELO. Now, this latter approach isn’t (just) a matter of pride - folks with high ELO usually have studied the game & played it obsessively for many years, make moves fairly quickly, & often follow certain conventions of play. Wanting to play other folks who also play that way is just a preference for how you spend your time playing the game you love, & I think it’s a valid one. On the other hand, it can be fun to, shall we say, glory in the chaotic randomness of backgammon a bit more by throwing such considerations to the wind & playing folks who are less “trained” but make surprising moves that challenge you in fun ways. This is also a valid approach. I also think there’s a lot of fun in showing less experienced players, by playing with them, some of the unexpected ways that backgammon works.

The other piece of all this is that not everyone knows how to use the settings tool to restrict matchups to the ELO range of other players you want to play - it’s not terribly obvious that this is an option.

Hope this helps answer some of the confusion!
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kellyfish
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Joined: 20 September 2022, 03:19

Re: Why do high ranked players always back out of matchup?

Post by kellyfish »

That does help, thank you.
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