Board Game Arena

Some people are playing lot of games with "BGA Robot" in Can't Stop just for get lot of ELO. Here you can see an example:

https://es.boardgamearena.com/#!player?id=83841502

I suggest turn all games to ELO OFF when you play with the AI. The BGA robot is made for understand BGA interface and learn a easy game.

I agree with this.

The BGA Robot is easy to beat and players are taking advantage of this so they can boost their ELO. I think several players in the Can't Stop Top 20 are cheating.

Hi, I'll contest because I play with BGA Robot sometimes

I played with players, and I because first, by playing only with players !
After, I played elo off with BGA robot (you can watch on my profile, that's true)

But... zebulon played, played and played against BGA Robot and now, he's first by... cheating, yeah ! So, to contest, I used BGA Robot too, I was top 1 by playing with players, so, that's normal to keep 1st and to not leave someone take that place thanks to BGA Robot.
So, yea, I would like to put games elo off with BGA robot, but for me, all points won/lost should be cancelled, I don't know if that's posible

For me, BGA Robot was an opponent to have fun when I became 1st, but it became an opponent to defend my first place with the same possibility as others.

This is strongly discouraged because the BGA robot also earn more than 10000 victories (and obviously a player), though I often win, it is just to practice with ELO.

Oso wrote:Some people are playing lot of games with "BGA Robot" in Can't Stop just for get lot of ELO.

Je viens de jouer pour la première fois à Can't stop avec le robot BGA après avoir lu ce fil. Trois parties gagnées facilement avec un score de 3-0 ; ELO désactivé.

Le niveau ELO du robot est très faible, mais gagner contre lui permet de gagner au moins un point ELO. Comme cela semble marcher à tous les coups, il suffit d'accumuler les parties contre le robot pour gagner petit à petit des places au classement.

Comme je pense que le robot n'est pas programmé pour mettre des pouces rouges afin de sanctionner une telle triche, le mieux est de désactiver automatiquement le classement ELO si un ou plusieurs participants à une partie sont des robots.

I wouldn't go so far as to say anyone is cheating necessarily, but playing the robot to gain position does violate the spirit of the game.

And it's much worse than you think (and here is why you need nerds around

Of the current top 12 players only 2 have not played the robot at all. Leaving 10 of the top 12 who have played the robot. Of those 10 only 2 have played any real players in their last 50 games. Those two have played the robot 46 of 50 and 31 of 50, respectively. That means that in the last 50 games for each player in the top 12 who have played the robot at all, overall they have played the robot 467 out of 500 games. It's obvious that most of the top 20 are only playing the robot to maintain their position in the top 20.

So, I propose that players cannot gain elo from playing the robot. Also, players cannot add to number of games played or victories by playing the robot.

Finally, I propose that the current rankings are contaminated with robot elo gain so all previous robot elo should be eliminated. My proof for this contamination:

(these are not in order) In the top 15 in ranking, these players have played the robot:
Played robot 160 out of 180 total games
Played robot 160 out of 161 total games
Played robot 318 out of 545 total games
Played robot 225 out of 256 total games
Played robot 212 out of 311 total games
Played robot 486 out of 596 total games
Played robot 117 out of 130 total games
Played robot 177 out of 228 total games
Played robot 150 out of 169 total games
Played robot 1884 out of 2743 total games

That's 10 of the top 15 in ranking. Two others have played to robot exclusively if their last 50 games.

Conclusion: Players are using the robot to artificially boost their ranking and gaining top spots and staying there.

How about "turn off" when in the game including at least 1 ELO more than 1700 player?

How about "turn off" when in the game including at least 1 ELO more than 1700 player?

Unfortunately, this problem is so significant that an incremental approach won't solve anything. 9 of the top 12 players have gotten to the top 15 by playing the robot almost exclusively. See my other post. 1700 puts you in the top 100. And even that is distorted because it used to be that being over 1700 put you near the top 20.

I hope the BGA admins are seeing this conversation because the game has gotten completely out of hand and is totally unfair. Please fix.

1650?

I haven't played any robot and haven't looked at any of this. But I agree with all this. Even the statistics don't matter. (Though nice summary of things.)

I really can't comprehend that anyone would even think it was OK to leave the ELO on when playing a robot. Why would they do such a thing to begin with? Even if someone is not using it to cheat. Unless your robot has an ELO, and actually plays close to that level and does it right, no ratings should be based on such a thing.