Arena needs rating decay

[sprockitz]

To add another perspective, I'm finding it harder and harder to find arena games (especially on 7 wonders and RaceFTG), so that I'll probably have to settle to playing them turn-based. So if rating decay was ever implemented, it should take these factors under consideration. Especially for longer games that take a while to finish.

I think the novelty of arena is wearing off and expect the numbers will fall. I know with all the unadressed issues I’m substantially cutting back on putting real effort trying to win titles. Between blatant cheating giving titles to people who play themselves with all the other mentioned problems it isn’t a valid competition.

[Pistolero]

About cheating, I've heard a possibility that my 7 wonders champion title was precisely stolen by a cheater who used multiple accounts.
With a VPN and launching the search at the same time, it's clearly achievable to get multiples accounts on the same arena game. This would explain the crazy luck that player got at the last minute.
Some messages have been sent to the admins but if What another player said to me (who I didnt Know at all) is true, then there was clearly cheating from an already KnoW cheater.

And finally, you're totally right about cutting off the effort. All efforts are useless since competition is flawed. If I'm putting effort somewhere, it's to gather a community of good players to just play games between us and have funny talks in the chat.

Yesterday I had the chance to play a 32 player tournament that a guy organized on discord, it was MUCH more entertaining than playing for the elite in the Arena.

[Wonderful Plays]

Yesterday I had the chance to play a 32 player tournament that a guy organized on discord, it was MUCH more entertaining than playing for the elite in the Arena.

Wow thanks, I didn't know you enjoyed it so much!

I'm planning to run more tournaments for 7 wonders for sure, I'm not sure if I will participate in them (as it is weird for me and stresfull to both organise & compete).

I really hope BGA will make it possible to play tourneys for more than 2 player games. That would be best.

[than_tham_tho_map]

I think the best player not playing everyday in the season is NOT a problem. If a player can be No.1 in ranking by playing only half of the season, why do you require him to play more games? Therefore, rating decay is not necessary.

However, I do think "last minute sniping" is a problem. And rating decay does not solve this problem at all. I proposed this mechanism to prevent player play the game on last few minute of the season (especially for games that need only 5-10 minute to finish).

Each season is 90-day long, i.e from day 1 to day 90, with another 10-day extension (day 91 to day 100), which means that we have a 100-day cycle for every new season:

- If by the end of day 90, we find the ranked No. 1 player (as normally). If he has been ranked No.1 continuously for the previous 48hr. Then he will be announced as the champion. The 10-day extension has no effects. During that 10-day every game in arena is played but not counting in the rating for either season. (i.e, we have 10 days to reset the season and finish up all the on-going turn-based games).

- If by the end of day 90, the ranked No.1 player does not ranked 1st continuously for the previous 48hr, then the 10-day extension will take into account. the leader will have to keep his lead for a full 48hr (continuously) to be announced the champion. During this 10-day period, whenever a player fulfill this condition (dominating the leader-board for 48hr continuously ), we announce him the champion, the rest of the period will be used to reset the season (finish up all the on-going turn-based games). If during this 10-day period, no one can fulfill the condition (for example: player A is ranked first on day 91, 93, 99, player B is ranked first on day 95, 97, and player C is ranked first on day 90,92,94,96,98,100), then the champion will be the player dominating the leader-board for most of the time during this period (in the above example, player C will be the champion).

With my proposed mechanism, if no-one can catch up with a player in the 90-day period, then obviously we can define the champion (no matter how many game he played, how frequently he played). If someone can snipe in last few minute, then we will enter a very competitive 10-day period, basically at that point, the top players are joining a mini-tournament, trying their best to dominate the leader-board

What do you guys think about this solution?