Board Game Arena

Dear backgammon experts,

All hail our Lord and Savior, ***, the cheating scumbag.
It has come to my attention that ***, our reigning Backgammon Arena champion of Season 5 and 4, has many clearly rigged & manipulated games.

Don't take my word for it. I ask for all your backgammon expertise in the examples here below, so you can see for yourself.
There are many many many countless other games of *** that are clearly rigged, where the opponent either makes suspiciously bad moves or where the opponent quits in winning position.
Can we trust that the staff of Board Game Arena will take necessary action against *** (and against other players)?

Example 1
Date: 7/21/2021
Game No.: ***
opponent: ***
***
Description: endgame; opponent in clearly winning position suddenly timed-out, which resulted in a loss for opponent.

Example 2
Date: 7/20/2021
Game No.: ***
Opponent: ***
***
Description: move 28; opponent refuses to hit 2 checkers, which would be the extremely obvious move to make the comeback.

Example 3
Date: 7/20/2021
Game No. **
Opponent: ***
***
Description: final move; opponent refuses to make the final move to claim victory. Opponent timed-out, which resulted in a loss for opponent.

Example 4
Date: 7/20/2021
Game No. ***
Opponent: ***
***
Description: endgame; opponent in better position suddenly timed-out, which resulted in loss for opponent.

Example 5
Date: 7/20/2021
Game No. ***
Opponent: ***
***
Description: opponent gets a great roll with the opportunity to get in winning position. Opponent refuses to make the move and suddenly timed-out, which resulted in loss for opponent.

[*edited by moderators. Public name dropping/shaming is not allowed and could result in a ban]

I will add a few games to the list (only the most obvious ones)

Example 6
Date: 11.12.2020
Game No: ***
opponent: ***
***
Description: endgame, Levins must win with 3 checkers left, but concedes the game

Example 7
Date: 25.01.2020
Game No: ***
opponent: ***
***
Description: endgame, ionv39 must win with 3 checkers left, but they abandon the game

There were quite a lot of players complaining about *** some time ago, so I investigated.
*** is only one of 17 cooperating accounts playing against eachother to get some of them to the top of the arena ranking.

Other games with clear cheating
The most clear cheating is when the winning player concedes or abandons the game, which happens in all of these games.
******************

Accounts involved:
**********************

This has really destroyed the competition for top 10 in Backgammon arena.
I guess a problem here is that it is time consuming to go through the game histories. In the examples above the cheating is so clear that analyzing is straightforeward.
The other problem is that the person behind these accounts can always make 17 new accounts.

[*edited by moderators. Public name dropping/shaming is not allowed and could result in a ban]

I reported him back in December, and the result was:
“*** has been found guilty. The report is closed“

I have no idea what the consequence was but he went on to win arena twice after that.

It’s really unfortunate because he has taken all the fun out of backgammon arena.


[*edited by moderators. Public name dropping/shaming is not allowed and could result in a ban]

Ace75 wrote: ↑14 August 2021, 05:38 I reported him back in December, and the result was:
“*** has been found guilty. The report is closed“

I have no idea what the consequence was but he went on to win arena twice after that.

It’s really unfortunate because he has taken all the fun out of backgammon arena.

Thank you for this information.

Can we trust that the staff of Board Game Arena will take necessary action against *** (and against other players)?

"No" is also an answer to this question. Not the answer I was looking for, but now we know.

[*edited by moderators. Public name dropping/shaming is not allowed and could result in a ban]

This very obvious cheater largely only arena/ELO boosts for the last stretch to the top. So most of their games will not indicate any cheating.

These accounts occupied 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in arena season 3.
In season 4 all places from 1st to 7th.
In season 5 all places from 1st to 8th.

For the rest of us the competition for top 10 becomes meaningless.

Preppie71 wrote: ↑13 August 2021, 20:01
There were quite a lot of players complaining about *** some time ago, so I investigated.
*** is only one of 17 cooperating accounts playing against eachother to get some of them to the top of the arena ranking.

Other games with clear cheating
The most clear cheating is when the winning player concedes or abandons the game, which happens in all of these games.
*******************************

Accounts involved:
********************

These accounts occupied 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in arena season 3.
In season 4 all places from 1st to 7th.
In season 5 all places from 1st to 8th.

Great research! Since nothing is being done against match fixing, it is safe to say that Arena is a failed project.
The real backgammon competition lies in user-generated tournaments.

What a shame. It's not like anyone gets anything real from winning. I don't understand why people feel the need to take the time to cheat at things that don't matter... Seems like a waste of time, but to each their own I guess.

Well, match fixing is unprofessional.

campusclimber wrote: ↑16 August 2021, 20:53 What a shame. It's not like anyone gets anything real from winning. I don't understand why people feel the need to take the time to cheat at things that don't matter... Seems like a waste of time, but to each their own I guess.

Some people get a picture of it and print it. Then they stare every night at it or do other nasty stuff with it…

Cheating without returning profit is stupid.