Goodbye from me!

[hamsi61]

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who designed this game and made it possible to play it on Board Game Arena.

Over the past few months, I’ve invested a significant amount of time into it. As someone who has always loved the Captain Tsubasa series, I truly enjoyed seeing it blended with a board game format.

But unfortunately, this is where my journey ends.
As of today, I am quitting the game — at least in the online Arena mode.

There are several reasons for this decision.

First, there are players who are blatantly cheating, and despite two Arena seasons passing, they are still not being properly punished. Even when action is taken, penalties are applied to secondary accounts used for cheating rather than to the main accounts that actually benefited from it. This is simply unacceptable, and everyone reading this message knows exactly which account I am referring to.

Second, the Arena competition itself is fundamentally unfair. While I consider myself lucky if I get matched with one opponent per day in turn-based mode, the player I’m competing against — who blocks anyone who plays better than them — is able to play 25–30 matches simultaneously.

Meanwhile, one of the players currently at the top of the leaderboard, and someone I respect greatly, chooses not to play at all in order to protect their rating.

And here I am, fighting a constant nerve war.

The game seriously affects my nerves. I don’t have an obsession with winning or losing. I’m willing to lose almost all the games I play. What frustrates me is that I often lose the matches where I play almost perfectly, while I win many games only when I move away from theoretical correctness.
Yes, luck is a defining factor in this game, and yes, it can be fun — but sometimes a match starts and you are forced to play out a fully scripted loss without having any real chance to influence the outcome. This is completely against my understanding of what a game should be.

All of this piling up, combined with the fact that I’ve recently been losing many matches in absurd ways, was the final straw.

I sincerely hope other players won’t experience the same level of frustration I did.
I wish you all the best and good luck in your games.

[Encripta]

While I respect the decision of the top1 player not playing to maintain the rank, many other games have a "decay elo system" that forces you to play at least 1 game a week otherwise you lose points. This I believe specially in these games with low amount of players would be beneficial, forcing everyone to play at least 1-2 weekly games.

It is sad if you quit to be honest, cause I think 50% of my games are against you, and only when you are not queueing up I get matched with someone else. This is something interesting because I see other players being matched with many other different players, so no idea why I constantly get matched against you, perhaps we spend too much time in here

I can see that "that" player you refeer to has been removed from Arena ladder so I guess BGA found out something suspicious.

[Jellby]

many other games have a "decay elo system" that forces you to play at least 1 game a week otherwise you lose points.

Which games? Or do you mean other sites?

The only decay in BGA is at season change in Arena. Or in the overall "all time" ranking, people are removed if they don't play in something like 1 or 2 months, but they don't lose elo, they're just hidden from the ranking and they're restored in full as soon as they play again.

[Encripta]

I am talking about other games outside BGA. Arena should be competitive and push players to play often. The all time ranking is something that does not bother me as I can be played casual, Arena is for people who wants bigger challenge. By removing 10-20 points weekly if you dont play at least 1 arena game, you ensure a healthier system. If you are the top1 you should not fear others, right?

[PuertoGeeko84]

I can see that "that" player you refeer to has been removed from Arena ladder so I guess BGA found out something suspicious.

Probably my ban request, added to previous ones, made the difference or i explained it better ahahah

[janjoje]

I was saddened by this news. I am actually the person who doesn’t play because I finished 1st in Arena mode. However, I believe this is acceptable and that I was not a main factor in the decision being taken.

Hamsi and Encripta are players who constantly move up and down the Arena rankings every time I check, they play a lot of games and they play very well. Their contribution to the game’s traffic is high. That’s why I’m sorry to see Hamsi leave. Still, I can understand it if the game causes frustration instead of enjoyment.

I also reported the other player 2–3 times, as did many others, and eventually that player was removed. In fact, he was a very good player as well, but what he did for the sake of ranking was not something that could reasonably be accepted.

There is another issue mentioned in this thread, and it applies to me too. I experience this in other games as well. While my opponents are able to play at dozens of tables at the same time, I can only get matched with at most 1–2 opponents. It seems I’m not the only one experiencing this. I wonder what the reason might be.

[idgaf]

hard agree, I could have basically written the post

sadly the cheater keeps playing and only makes things worse, cause they only reset his elo but no ban and keeps achievements. it's not fun to play in a corrupt environment, and he keeps "stealing elo" from low-mid level players that would eventually rise to the top.

I do plan to probably play a bit some arena seasons post-arena-elo-reset. and hopeful to see how it plays with expansion cards in (more cards means confrontation isn't in 1/3 games). but i have a feeling the same dominant strategy will exist, as the main issues haven't been addressed.
I've told this to the creator, but there need to be a fix to being locked out of playing, it's simply not fun. i suggested being able to discard down to 1-2 cards every turn, and each cumulative passing adds -1/-1/-1 until possession is lost. but hey

see you around

[Encripta]

The passing giving you -1/-1/-1 cumulative sounds nice idea to avoid people just passing ball.
Regarding the cheater, I guess BGA does not want to ban someone who pays premium, specially on a game where we are like 50 active players.

Regarding the expansion, from what I saw, Confrontation is still the most powerful card, and 6 signings will lead to Confrontation holder to buy most of those if needed.

I will give a try with expansion for longer but if main issues are not addressed I will quit as well.

Also the Elo is frustrating, all players in top30 know mechanics and are able to defeat a top5, meaning the top5 will lose 30 points but earn only 6-7 points on victory. It makes no sense to risk so much for so little.