Board Game Arena

I was unfairly kicked from a tarot table which I was winning at the last hand. One player was repeatedly asking for a collective abandonment (or retirement, or however it's called in english), which seemed to overload the UI, while another kicked me for running out of time even though I was there the whole time and wasn't slow at all. This is a 40-45 trophy swing in a match I was sure to win, just when I'm close to catching the top player.

This is the second time I get kicked opportunistically in arena mode. The platform is unstable, it shouldn't be so easy to kick someone just to gain ELO. It distorts the "competition".

Spintheo wrote: ↑30 March 2021, 22:19 kicked me for running out of time even though I was there the whole time and wasn't slow at all.

If you were not slow at all, your time could not have gone negative, and you could not have been kicked. There is nothing to contest.

There was a service interruption recently that may have affected this game.

that's a bit of a silly response, without being there, but thanks for dropping by.

Like I said, this seems to have tickled you the wrong way but the UI often bugs, plus there's a known clock issue in tarot where winning a trick reduces your time by 2 seconds when you start the next one rather than giving you the extra 10 or so seconds you are suppose to get for each new trick. So you can get in clock troule just by winning too many tricks.

Did I mention I was way ahea on the last hand? The guy who tried the collective retirement apologised after, said he was doing it for fun and din't know it would cause an issue on my screen. Of course that's not his fault...

There was nothing silly about his reponse. If anything, allowing expulsions to be appealed would be a bit silly: soon enough moderators would be flooded with appeals to the tune of "my cat ate my mouse and I couldn't click anymore" or "I was only 30 seconds late, I didn't deserve to be expelled". One successful appeal would set a precedent, and afterwards people would complain of bias.

The fact you were winning up until the last hand is irrelevant: if you run out of time in chess, you lose the game no matter the situation. And how can it be verified you're not simply making this up? I'm not saying you are, but can this always be verified? The only objective way is the timer.

Now, if the timer is bugged and subtracting time incorrectly, that should of course be addressed. I have encountered this in some games as well, most recently Haiclue. And it would be nice if Elo loss could be forgiven when it was caused by a server issue. Appealable expulsions are not the solution, though.

Look I actually agree that it's impractical, was pissed yesterday and asked a dumb question.

As for calling "If you were not slow at all, your time could not have gone negative, and you could not have been kicked" silly, sorry but to me that's a blanket statement that's meant to blindly dismiss me to avoid discussing the actual issue at hand. I'm surprised anyone other than its author would want to defend it, but hey, live and let live I guess .

With respect to the clock being part of the game, fair point, but the clock in chess is an integral part of the game, in tarot it just isn't. If you ever find a timer, it's either a gaming platform thing (to manage disconnects, abusive waste of time, etc.), or more akin to poker where a guy calls "clock" on another after his Hollywood act lasted a bit too long. More details, no one complained I was being slow (including the kicker), and the 3 other players at the table were scandalised by what he did, 2 of them even said they were red-thumbing him as a result.

All that said, at this point I'm just laughing it off, was a freak occurence and I've already made it up. However, players using the clock to kick people in unsportsmanlike situations is contagious and that does make the competition less fun.

Spintheo wrote: ↑01 April 2021, 03:56
With respect to the clock being part of the game, fair point, but the clock in chess is an integral part of the game, in tarot it just isn't.

Hm.... The origins of chess are somewhere in the 5-600s AD. The first time clocks were used in a tournament was 1883. 1300 years of development before being introduced does not seem to qualify it is an integral part of the game. Additionally, the vast majority of chess sets for sale do not include a timer. If it were an integral part of the game, it would be like selling a chess set without a king. It is not an integral part.
(reference the Wikipedia articles of "History of Chess" and "Chess clocks")

The clock is a part of any game as played on BGA. Even in training mode, the clock is there (just disabled).

An improperly operating clock (loosing time by winning a trick) or the actual intent of the other players are separate issues. The question asked was "Can an expulsion (for time issues) be contested?" The answer to that is no.