Cheating

[Meeplelowda]

Sometimes the arena score isn’t even reset and arena is most cheaters main goal.

This is often the case and is wrong. They only occasionally reset arena and they should do it every time, and should put in the effort to retroactively remove the account from the standings if they take action after the season ended. As a consequence, some cheating accounts remain as the winners of previous seasons. It's not a good look and I'm not defending that.

[FrankJones]

Oh, perhaps I spoke incorrectly. I assumed the accounts were wiped by BGA. (I was indeed referring to the Ark Nova incident that was recently reported on and dealt with).

[Meeplelowda]

Oh, perhaps I spoke incorrectly. I assumed the accounts were wiped by BGA. (I was indeed referring to the Ark Nova incident that was recently reported on and dealt with).

Well BGA doesn't comment on it, so we don't actually know one way or the other. And people will just believe what they want, like if it didn't get wiped in some other incident then it never gets wiped. Whereas there could be some other factor that determines it like whether that account had gotten a previous warning we don't know about.

[tbhp]

I'm glad the practice now seems to be to close both the main and the alt account. In the Connect 4 case only the alt was closed, but the main just had its Elo reset.

I think for all intents and purposes, just resetting Elo on the main account does the job well enough, since it takes the offender out of the competition and if they want to get back in it, they have to climb again the right way this time. That's the only thing that really matters in my opinion.

Systems where rehabilitation is impossible can be ineffective, because if people just keep being blocked no matter what they do, they might think they have nothing to lose at this point, so they'll just keep up with their bad behavior. When people are allowed a second chance, it gives them incentive to become better people.

[tbhp]

This is often the case and is wrong. They only occasionally reset arena and they should do it every time, and should put in the effort to retroactively remove the account from the standings if they take action after the season ended. As a consequence, some cheating accounts remain as the winners of previous seasons. It's not a good look and I'm not defending that.

I'm more of the mind that it would be a bad look to retroactively change the results (especially if they declare the second place the winner).

This is like the whole Africa Cup debacle. In my opinion if something illegal happens during a competition, it should be called out during the competition. That's the time when you can do it. Once the competition ends and a winner has been declared, it seems anti-sportsmanship to try to rewrite that.

Sometimes mistakes happen during games. On this site it can be bugs, in the real world it can be bad refereeing. Would you say that Argentina should have one of their World Cup victories cancelled because we know that Maradona scored by hand and therefore "cheated" during that famous game? Most people wouldn't. What happened happened. If that foul had to be called out, it had to be done by the referee at the time it happened. Once the competition ends and history is written, it's too late to change that. What we can do is work at preventing future issues from happening.

[Michael417]

It’s frustrating to hear that trying to fix a stolen win is anti-sportsmanship. What's actually anti-sportsmanship is a platform that lets cheaters keep titles because its support system is a black box. If I could have tracked my report or gotten a simple automated receipt, I wouldn't have needed to start a public thread. The platform makes the process so difficult and opaque that you're left with no choice but to shout into the void just to find out if anyone is looking at your case.

[Blake]

I am on board with Michael and agree 100%. I personally took nearly 30 minutes to review the games that occurred on the final day of Spades Arena, and it is blatantly obvious what was going on. Many of us in here have played spades daily for years. None of us are under the illusion that players don’t occasionally disconnect or fall asleep mid-game. BUT, with that being said… The same player leaving multiple games in 1 night specifically against 1 other player, and coincidentally when that “other player” is down in the game is TOO much of a coincidence… Whether its “true cheating” is up for speculation, but it’s undebatable that this is king making. Anyone that commits 10-15 minutes of their time to find the games we’re referring to and speeds through the plays to the end can see what happened numerous times. It’s also telling when one of those players, who was un-named came defensively to the post that was locked, without even a mention… I wish the mods would take a closer look at this one…

[yakko_]

I'm more of the mind that it would be a bad look to retroactively change the results (especially if they declare the second place the winner).

...
Sometimes mistakes happen during games.

This is a bizarre take, and the analogy to referees' judgment calls during a game is inapt, whether from failing to understand what is being talked about or willfully deflecting. Serious institutions, whether legitimate legal systems dealing with cases of fraud and theft or the Olympic Games discovering cheating, do not throw up their hands and say, "Oh, well, you snuck by; what's done is done." Medals are stripped and titles revoked, however long after the event it takes for cheating to be caught, and regardless of whether it was early in the competition or just before the timer expires.

[Meeplelowda]

whether from failing to understand what is being talked about or willfully deflecting

First time interacting with tbhp, eh?

[tbhp]

It’s frustrating to hear that trying to fix a stolen win is anti-sportsmanship. What's actually anti-sportsmanship is a platform that lets cheaters keep titles because its support system is a black box. If I could have tracked my report or gotten a simple automated receipt, I wouldn't have needed to start a public thread. The platform makes the process so difficult and opaque that you're left with no choice but to shout into the void just to find out if anyone is looking at your case.

Part of sportsmanship is accepting the results. If people's results can be taken away after the fact, this creates a precedent where you can never really be sure if anyone actually won anything.

It's like in football we say, while the game is still on the referee has power to make decisions. But once the final whistle is blown, the game is over and the score is set.

I agree with the other part of your post though, there should be more transparency in general regarding what is going on.