Blatant cheating going on in Ark Nova

[JoeÜbergang]

While i would be very carefully blaming such a topic in a public forum, i have to agree, that this situation seems to be quite obvious. It's quite clear that games at season end were abandoned to avoid a loose for the high rank player.

I can only hope that BGA is doing something against such obvious kingmaking. Otherwise the trust in the BGA arena system and some kind of competitive play on this site cannot be ensured anymore.

[JoeÜbergang]

However after checking the history of other top rank players including a direct rank neighbour of the accused person in this post, abandon games at least at the first round seems not that uncommon. This gives the question whether a small degree of abuse is not common practice in the top ranks. Proposing to abandon the game each time you have a bad starting hand and hoping that the opponent agrees, can give you quite some ranking boost in ARK Nova.

I have the impression, that some kind of general adaption of Arena rules are necessary. A abandoned game in arena should give a penalty on the arena points for both players. Otherwise this option will be abused as it is currently apparently the case in top ranks.

[Arrigo II]

I think many top players have a high abandon rate because there is no good matchmaking system, and they are often paired with other Elite players with maybe a 500 or more point difference. In that case, abandon is often preferred to spending 45 minutes to gain 1 Arena point. Such games should not even exist in first place, so I don't blame those willing to abandon them from the start. The suspicious abandons are those from midgame.

[JDansp]

What arrigo said.

The main issue presented here is not abandons taking place when choosing starting hands, but abandons and CONCEDES from straight up winning positions far along in the game. And also the fact that the person in question with 95% certainty has a second account he has been queueing up for to boost his elo/arena ranking.

[GTSchemer]

I looked into it a bit, and unfortunately the only option is this:

* Create yet another report about this player.
* Include the latest details, e.g. the links here and the clearest case(s) where the player conceded in a winning position.

Note that BGA staff have been at Essen and will not be able to address this before the current season ends. If it is not addressed next season, it seems safe to say that BGA in its current form cannot feasibly address it.


*edit* I would emphasize that the data needs to be very concrete, e.g. spreadsheet and careful statistical analysis, since even a few instances might not be convincing enough.

[korosif]

For the record , the account in question seems to be now suspended until the end of the season.
I think this is a very welcomed move by bga , and it conveys a strong message concerning the need of sane competition concerning their most popular game.

Of course, we also should be careful of not throwing light accusations, but in this case, the frequency of dubious or outright nonsensical conceding was unquestionable.

Last thing that should be noted, is the fact that it seems a certain community of players felt that they were “robbed” of a an arena winner in the past, and that this could explain part of certain behavior.
The message I wish to convey is that I was witness of a real will of western top players to now self enforce strong rules about dubious practices (things that were not as serious as it was reported here, but like using Smurf accounts for example). I think all “communities” of players should reach each other, maybe make amend of the past and then find a way to compete in an ethic and peaceful way.

[JDansp]

Thank you BGA for taking immediate action!

[JDansp]

I looked into it a bit, and unfortunately the only option is this:

* Create yet another report about this player.
* Include the latest details, e.g. the links here and the clearest case(s) where the player conceded in a winning position.

Note that BGA staff have been at Essen and will not be able to address this before the current season ends. If it is not addressed next season, it seems safe to say that BGA in its current form cannot feasibly address it.


*edit* I would emphasize that the data needs to be very concrete, e.g. spreadsheet and careful statistical analysis, since even a few instances might not be convincing enough.

And thank you for looking into it <3

[Magrim42]

I feel sorry for people that don't understand the joy of winning fairly.

In all reality they are pathetic losers. Know in your hearts that the true winners are those who play by the rules and win. Those who cheat are losers no matter the end score or rank.

[Meeplelowda]

I find this offensive on at least three levels:

1) Cheating to take away well deserved accolades from legitimate players is offensive.
2) The laziness of cheating to win instead of studying, training, etc. to improve is offensive.
3) The laziness of cheating in such a blatant way that there's not even any gray area is offensive in and of itself, and it's also offensive because it insults the intelligence of other players.

My favorite example of 3) is a player who was cheating in the Connect 4 arena by playing against an alt account that would never, ever block the main account's 3 in a row. There were dozens of games that always ended in the minimum number of moves possible in favor of the main account because there was never any blocking. What, did you think no one would notice? The irksome thing is that the alt account got banned, but not the main one. I think the policy should be that all accounts involved get a ban hammer.

But, alas, this is going to happen again. I fully admit that I am cynical and believe that whenever there is anything of value to be had, even if it's not monetary or material, some humans will cheat/steal to get it. It only takes one of them to ruin it for everyone. If Arena rankings and ELO went away would some people would still cheat? Absolutely yes. But would fewer of them cheat? I argue also yes.

No one who actually cares about Arena rankings or ELO wants either one of them to go away. But I think the reaction of being "shocked, shocked to find that cheating is going on in here" rings hollow like Claude Rains's protests.