How do tournament tie breakers work?

Tournaments organization / Organisation des tournois
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davypi
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Joined: 03 February 2021, 16:06

How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by davypi »

I entered my first tournament this weekend. Came in second place... though I'm honestly not sure it was deserved. Tournament was six player round robin. Me and another player tied on wins, but in our specific head to head game, I lost. I would expect that to be the first tie breaker after net total wins. Can anyone explain how ties work in touraments? Is this documented somewhere that I just can't find?
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Mathew5000
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Joined: 02 January 2021, 01:41

Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by Mathew5000 »

davypi wrote: 30 May 2023, 01:57Tournament was six player round robin. Me and another player tied on wins, but in our specific head to head game, I lost. I would expect that to be the first tie breaker after net total wins. Can anyone explain how ties work in touraments?
I have wondered about this! As far as I know, it is not specifically documented in any FAQ on boardgamearena. See the following thread, and the links therein: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27700
Last edited by Mathew5000 on 05 June 2023, 18:17, edited 1 time in total.
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DrRockenheimer
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Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by DrRockenheimer »

Very odd that it is based on either age of account or thinking time, which seem to be the most credible answers floating around. Also not good at all that the actual answer is not in the FAQ, because this is literally a frequently asked question. I recommend upvoting any of the suggestions, because just about anything else would be better than the current system (whatever it is).

For the tournaments I enter, I would be satisfied if they simply declared that a tie for placement is simply a tie. Though for round robin, using head-to-head among those tied is an obvious solution for most of the cases (a multi-way tie could still occur).
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davypi
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Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by davypi »

DrRockenheimer wrote: 05 June 2023, 03:50 I recommend upvoting any of the suggestions, because just about anything else would be better than the current system (whatever it is).
Well, based on some other threads I've seen around here, I get the impression it won't matter. It seems like the devs don't care much about tournament format and focused more on Arena mode.
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DrRockenheimer
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Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by DrRockenheimer »

My impression is that suggestions for site-wide changes don't get much attention on any topics. Which is a shame, because some suggestions are entirely sensible and would not be disruptive to implement. In this case, I understand there are tournament formats that need a tie breaker in some unusual cases? Deciding randomly would be more fair than whatever the system is now. In other cases, such as round robin results, the current arbitrary tie breakers *routinely* make a mockery of fair competition.
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Ravenh4wk
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Joined: 04 July 2021, 14:22

Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by Ravenh4wk »

This exact thing just happened to me. I entered a Pirate Kapern tournament and got to the quarter-final. I was winning the game right up to the very last round and then my opponent managed to equal my score of 6900 points. The game said it was a tie, but my opponent went on into the semi-final.

I messaged the organiser and was told that BGA do a tie-breaker in this situation (they basically pick a player). Obviously, you cannot have a tie-breaker unless both opponents take part - they need to look up the definition of what 'tie-breaker' means!

Why don't games (especially when you get so far in a tournament) go to a sudden death game where the target points to achieve are lower and you can get a legit winner?
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Mathew5000
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Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by Mathew5000 »

Ravenh4wk wrote: 21 June 2023, 23:29 Why don't games (especially when you get so far in a tournament) go to a sudden death game where the target points to achieve are lower and you can get a legit winner?
Realistically, BGA needs to have a rule for cases like this, which can apply to a tournament of any game. The sort of thing you suggest would have to be set for every game separately.

In my view, the tournament creator should have the option, for single-elimination tournaments, of either "ties result in a new match" or "ties are broken by random draw".

Also, when there is a random draw, the game page and the tournament page should display that information! You shouldn't have to write to BGA support or ask on the forums what happened.
patsyish
Posts: 87
Joined: 22 November 2022, 00:42

Re: How do tournament tie breakers work?

Post by patsyish »

There could be tie-breaker defined for each game: e.g. in Memoir´44
1.total amount of medals
2. total amount of figures
3. time used
4. random
Siu! :)
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