Always paired against the same player in the arena

[JeromeLon]

I've been paired against the same person for the 4th time in a row when starting a Blooms arena game.

That player is always waiting for a game, which is perfectly reasonable, but it means that whenever another player starts a game, the only other player available is this one.

Is there a way to avoid this?

[Cheery Dog]

You can avoid playing against the player by giving them a personal red thumb.

If you then happen to want to play them again, you can remove it again.

[Speusippus]

Does giving the red thumb in any way punish the player? I have the same problem as the OP but I don't want to negatively impact the player in question.

Related to this, I was wondering if there is a way to specify I only want to play against people within a certain skill range. The one I keep getting matched against is in the 500's, and I'm in the 200's, so it's a blowout every time.

I see an option "I don't want to play with people far from my level" but it says in parentheses "(+/-2)", so I take it "level" is not the same as the skill rating. What is "level"?

[dschingis27]

If you give a "private" red thumb, there is no harm to the player you give it to. (You get asked which type of red thumb to give when you click on the red thumb.)

With regard to the (+/-2) level setting, it depends whether you are in Arena Mode or Simple Mode. In Arena Mode, this refers to the leagues above and below you. So "only allow (+/-2)" means that you get paired only to players at most 2 leagues away from your league. In Simple Mode, this does indeed refer to the Elo rating, you probably know that players are classified into (Aprrentice - Normal - Good - Strong - Expert - Master) based on their Elo. So here "only allow (+/-2)" means that you get paired only to at most 2 "levels" away from you on this Elo rating ladder. For your Use Case, it's probably best to use +/-1 or maybe even "+/-0".

[sprockitz]

I have run into this scenario before where someone with a red thumb is trying to play an arena game that I want to play. It actually creates a problem because I won't be able to create a table of the game...I'll click to play and it'll forever stay on searching for players and will never open a new table. This is either a bug or an oversight, but basically I believe what happens is it sees there is a table matching your specifications but then checks and sees they have you red thumbed (or vice versa) so you can't join the table...but then it won't create a new table where you can join and wait for more players.

I've found this is particularly annoying in turn based where I can go several days without even creating a table because someone who red thumbed me had already created a table and was waiting for people. And this is in a less popular game making it near impossible to ever get a game when the other player creates a new table right away when their table gets enough players...and I'm stuck not being able to create a table.

[dgjxqz]

While it may be complicated to implement weighted sum of preferences, reputation, rank and history as matching score when selecting opponents; the very least is ELO / rank gain / loss could factor in history of encounters.

[JeromeLon]

Thanks all, the red thumb solution worked like a charm!

[jimshorts72]

Struggling with this in Backgammon. How do I give a red thumb to someone that I’ve never played as they never accept a game?

[KongKing123]

Struggling with this in Backgammon. How do I give a red thumb to someone that I’ve never played as they never accept a game?

It should be private red thumb, not a public one.