Board Game Arena

If you want evidence just how much difference removing friendly games from counting towards guru status is this season the winning vote for Heat had 124 votes. The last 4 seasons had 25, 59, 14, 39 votes.

FrankJones wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 18:14 I lost my guru status in a game in which I finished the season in 2nd place !

I don't see why the two things should be related.

I'm starting to think the guru system is a bit unneeded. It can be discouraging when you fail to reach your objectives one season, and you may have to wait a whole year to be able to have a shot at it again. That's because with games that have many possible variants, if the gurus keep picking the variants you're not crazy about (for playing in Arena anyway), then you are stuck having to wait three months over and over while the others are enjoying themselves and completing objectives.

In contrast, tournaments are more common (though it may depend on the game of course) and they usually cover the variety of game modes that exist. So you never feel too discouraged or like it'll take forever to win what you want to win.

I think one solution could be: drop the guru system, and instead of having the season be 3 months, make it one month instead. Now, the game mode would be picked randomly (probably not ideal) or would cycle through all the possible variants of the game. There could be a calendar that tells you which month is going to have which combination. This way, people would be guaranteed that the variants they like come up at least a bit more frequently than once in a year (unless they have extremely specific requirements). The seasons would also be shorter and therefore less disappointing when you fail your objectives.

You may say, but it's cooler to make it three months and it gives people more time to play more games. Except that given the way Arena works, the three months are actually a bit superfluous, because it's usually your performance in your past 30 games or so that determines your final ranking. You often see people making big pushes in the last few days of a season and win like that. So in essence, whether it's one month or three months doesn't really change things that much.

FrankJones wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 18:14 I lost my guru status in a game in which I finished the season in 2nd place !

I believe guru status sunsets regardless of whether you keep playing at the same pace. It is opaque when you can qualify again.

I'm just trying to figure out how there were 200 players with more games played than I played in any given 30 or 60 day period.

I'm not sure there were even 200 unique players.

FrankJones wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 20:02 I'm just trying to figure out how there were 200 players with more games played than I played in any given 30 or 60 day period.

I'm not sure there were even 200 unique players.

Where is the number 200 coming from?

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 23:49

FrankJones wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 20:02 I'm just trying to figure out how there were 200 players with more games played than I played in any given 30 or 60 day period.

I'm not sure there were even 200 unique players.

Where is the number 200 coming from?

I was browsing BGA and ended up on a page that was explaining how to be a guru. It listed several criteria, one of which is, "Be among the 200 players with the most games played in [some time frame]."

https://boardgamearena.com/faq?anchor=f ... agamegurus

At the point when gurus were selected, I had played 7 games in the past 30 days. I don't think it's mathematically possible for 200 players to have played more. The game gets maybe 1200 plays a month. And the 15-20 highest volume players play a significant percentage of those games.

FrankJones wrote: ↑14 October 2026, 00:07 I was browsing BGA and ended up on a page that was explaining how to be a guru.

The page you are referring to is not just any page, it's the FAQ of the site.

(yes, I'm being pedantic, I'm copying Meeplelowda's style)

FrankJones wrote: ↑14 October 2026, 00:11 At the point when gurus were selected, I had played 7 games in the past 30 days. I don't think it's mathematically possible for 200 players to have played more. The game gets maybe 1200 plays a month. And the 15-20 highest volume players play a significant percentage of those games.

That's probably right, but then again if you've been a guru previously you apparently need to wait before you can be selected again. Or maybe the number is actually less than 200 for games that are not played much.

The FAQ seems to be trying to say you have to be at least in the 200 players, maybe not necessarily that 200 players will be selected. It may just be the cap for the size of the group.

FrankJones wrote: ↑14 October 2026, 00:11 At the point when gurus were selected, I had played 7 games in the past 30 days. I don't think it's mathematically possible for 200 players to have played more. The game gets maybe 1200 plays a month. And the 15-20 highest volume players play a significant percentage of those games.

That's what I meant by your guru status sunsetting regardless of whether you keep playing at the same pace that should make you a guru. They force turnover. What they don't say is how long the cool down period is before you qualify again.

I'm confused. I've been a continuous Guru at "Earth".