Tournament - time has run out for player - is there a penalty if game continues

[JYorks]

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but I cannot find it …

I’m new to tournaments and am puzzled by the time for turns and for total game play. Is there a penalty if you exceed your time limit but still complete the game? I know that other players can boot you out if you exceed your limit, but if they don’t do that and the games carries on to completion, is there any penalty for any players that have exceeded their time limit?

I’ve seen games where players have been booted, and I’ve been booted myself (before I fully understood the time limits), but I’m now in a game where one player has exceeded their total game play time but has not been booted. This player is also currently looking like they might win. It seems unfair if they break the rules and then win the game? Are there any time penalties in a situation like this? (For context, it’s a 4 player game and all other players are well within their time limit at the moment)

[Meeplelowda]

This player is also currently looking like they might win. It seems unfair if they break the rules and then win the game? Are there any time penalties in a situation like this?

If the game finishes normally, i.e., by reaching the end condition for whatever game it is, then the winner is whoever won according to the rules of the game. If you think that's "unfair," you can expel this player.

If you expel this player, then all other players will be considered tied and the person who advances will be chosen either randomly or by account age or some other mechanism I guarantee you won't consider fair.

If the game ends by reaching the maximum time for this round, then the player with the most thinking time left will win.

If you want to win on time, BGA makes you get your hands dirty. Of course, in n player games with n>2, you are still rolling the dice on whether you will advance if fewer than n-1 players move on to the next round.

[JYorks]

That’s really helpful, thanks. I couldn’t find this information anywhere else
I’m just a little puzzled over time limits - it seems strange that there are limits but no real penalties (except for the possibility of other players booting you), but if that’s the way it is, then that’s what I needed to know

[Meeplelowda]

That’s really helpful, thanks. I couldn’t find this information anywhere else
I’m just a little puzzled over time limits - it seems strange that there are limits but no real penalties (except for the possibility of other players booting you), but if that’s the way it is, then that’s what I needed to know

The "FAQ" at the top of this forum is very incomplete. But this topic pretty much comes up at least every other month in a thread where someone asks how the person who advanced was chosen (after someone was expelled in a 3+ player game).

Why is getting booted not a "real" penalty?

[nik592]

I think the OP is saying booting is a real penalty but if that doesn't happen then there is none (you do get a time penalty recorded on your profile, but there is no karma impact for this as there is for booting/quitting).

That said, tournaments are quite different in their timing. A tournament creator sets the maximum time per game for the tournament (I don't know all the increments, but for turn-based it is something like 1, 3, 5, 7, 15 or 30 days). This time is then evenly distributed among the players - so for a 3p game with max. 15 days, each player gets 5 days total. No additional time is added back on as each player takes their turn (as happens in non-tournament games). Tournaments can either run with a 12-hour period where clocks tick (and pause the other 12 hours for sleeping, etc.) or where clocks tick 24 hours a day. So if you happen to be a player where the player before you takes their turn shortly after you sleep for the day, your clock will run down a lot faster than other players. If you still think that's an example of a player breaking the rules of a tournament, then feel free to boot them, but many players disagree - in fact there's regularly a request to remove booting from tournaments and just let the games run their course (since they will time out at the maximum time per game, eg. after 15 days in my example above).

[JYorks]

Thanks, nik592, you’ve understood my point
And thanks also for the rest of your reply. I can now understand why some people want the “skip” option in tournaments removed, but I can also understand the frustration when one player consistently takes longer to play their turn than the others (and yes, I do see how day/night could affect this). Lots to think about …