Red thumbs in Arena: player comfort vs. room for manipulation?

[Nils Nils]

The option to offer and accept a draw is another odd feature that doesn’t make sense in a Mountain Goats game, especially in Arena mode, where the scoring always produces a winner.
It’s not common, but it gets abused too: when two friends are paired against each other, they can agree to a draw so they don’t damage each other’s rating.

[Jellby]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

[Nils Nils]

Abandoning is not a draw. A draw (tie) affects elo and statistics, an abandonment doesn't.

Yes, you’re right, I worded that imprecisely. What I described earlier as a draw is actually recorded at the end of the game as “Table abandoned”, but the essence is the same: it can still be manipulated exactly the way I described.