The Rise and Fall of TICHUMONSTER

Forum rules
Please DO NOT POST BUGS on this forum. Please report (and vote) bugs on : https://boardgamearena.com/bugs

Post helpful?

Yes
27
87%
No
4
13%
 
Total votes: 31

User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

The Rise and Fall of TICHUMONSTER

Post by NeanderthalMan »

An origin story

Image

Once upon a time, in a faraway internet hellscape … a player going by *** opened a BGA account (country: France, language: French), perhaps the first owned by this player, who we’ll call ***. They became quick friends with ***—with whom most readers ***—and frequently played BANG! with limited success (9 with Maxi, in fact), winning *** 61 out of 157 plays (39%).

On the *** 17th play *** abruptly abandons before opponents can notch a win, something repeated 39 more times or 25% of all these BANG! plays. This deprives the opposition of the total ELO amount they would have otherwise received while not impacting *** because it’s at the 100 threshold and cannot drop lower.

What does this have to do with Tichu, you ask … well, our friend *** gets first known taste of Tichu on Aug 24 and wins *** 4 out of 6 (eh, 2 out 4 if excluding when opponents quit early, but a great start nonetheless!). On Sep 19, after abandoning 3 consecutive plays of BANG! and 1 of Tichu in the preceding days, *** renames the *** account *** and deletes it, determined to open another (and another, and another …) with a clean slate and no loss history.

Multiple new accounts are launched by *** over the next weeks but at least 3 on Oct 9: ***, ***, and ***, the latter of these eventually becoming the player’s primary account.

At this decisive moment (so far as we know), *** began experimenting with playing two accounts simultaneously in the same game (that’s cheating, for those new here, and easier than improving at BANG!). It started tentatively, with ***and *** together in *** 5 plays in quick succession.

Presumably overjoyed with pilfering 5 of 5 for 100% and feeling entitled to more, this player deletes *** and starts playing [*** and ***] together to benefit the latter. Over next ***38 games of BANG!—accompanied by sock puppet ***—*** finished first every time (with *** abandoning 5 times to ensure no losses), going from 89 to 424 ELO in 6 days and #1 in the standings. This ELO boosting cheat wasn't missed ***by other BANG! players.

***

As a result, *** was evidently moderated and BANG! ELO reduced. Was a lesson learned? Yes … but not what you’d hope. Rather than recognizing the absurd amounts of time and effort being put into cheating for nothing of actual value, *** instead doubles-down and realizes one can’t ride the same sock puppet account for so long. 38 games is too easily detectable! So, *** is renamed *** and sock puppets are churned at faster clip and rarely plays more than 6 games with/against the same secondary account from this point onward. Only known exception was another BANG! boosting operation with *** (country: USA, language: French) where 20 of 26 were heads up matches with the secondary account taking dives. This resulted in another apparent moderation in late Dec: BANG! ELO reduced to 0 and *** account banned.

***

*** even tries rigging Papayoo in this way, finishing first once with ***and once with *** and, for some reason that remains unclear, plays ***73 games of Chess against only 5 different sock puppets and immediately agrees to a draw at the outset of every play.

UPDATE: That was using two accounts for karma boosting, who'da thunk?:
Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:50I can explain you for chess and connect4 ... not really difficult to understand that s for up karma quickly ;)
NeanderthalMan wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:59What do you need karma for, isn't it all offset by bad faith anyway?
Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 03:33need 60% karma to play arena . If you have bad reputation you cant play arena. 30 rounds = 0 to 60. Connect4 faster than tichu or bang.

*** returns to Tichu on Oct 13 using the preferred account, wins the first play and abandons the second 71 minutes in, immediately before opponents get the win (you know why). Two days later, *** brings their sock puppetry to Tichu with two consecutive wins, one *** with and the other ***. After several plays with best buds ***,***,***,*** returns to exploit the unwitting with a new slate of secondary aliases:
***

* You’ll note that ignoble cheaters of Tichu, ***and ***, join *** as partners on several games to play against a sock puppet.

By this point, *** had created and disposed of at least 40 accounts, perhaps thinking that closing an account deletes the public record of its play history (spoiler alert: it doesn’t). As with BANG! before, the inability to win consistently with ethical play combined with the certain delight taken from sustained (unearned) success while playing others for suckers brings us to the nexus event of our story.


***

Image

Plagiarism apparently another vice, *** lifts language about passing convention for *** their profile from *** profile—a top Arena player at the time—and adds: “Then, look at me. And let my talent speak. … 😉 Tichu and Bang : I apologize in advance to all the opponents that I will strike down on this games. I am really sorry. Kiss 😘 *** ” (lol)

Copying the uppercase styling of ***, *** opens the first *** account on Dec 30 (country: USA, language: French) and jumps into Connect Four and Tichu. In the ***opening Tichu round, ***’s Grand Tichu fails while the opponents’ competing Small Tichu is successful (score -180 to 180). The player calls Grand again next round but when clear it too will fail (wait for it …), abandons game.

*** renames the ***[v1] account ***and immediately deletes it. Undeterred, a second *** [v2] is opened post haste (later renamed ***) and resumes playing Tichu (country: USA, language: French). The first four Arena mode games are apparently honest wins (it is possible!) but once one has tasted of the proverbial forbidden fruit, it’s all too easy to return and with the Arena season, what, ending in 11 days …

For ***’s next two Arena games the sock puppet *** [v1] (renamed *** before inevitable deletion) is randomly assigned to the opposing side and sabotages the unfortunate users partnered with it. On New Years Eve, *** played Connect Four with randos and then 12 more consecutive plays with friendo ***.


Confederacy of chicanery

Image

A brief aside on ***, who you’ll recall has been with *** from the beginning and also happened to friend or be friended by at least 8 different accounts owned by ***, even if closed within a day:

***

*** *** with *** (and an additional 13 with *** [v2] and 30 combined across 6 sock puppet accounts). At least 2 Tichu plays included both ***, ***, and a sock puppet:

***

This helpful collaborator goes so far as to presumably create a second account on Dec 30, *** (country: France, language: French), which immediately becomes reciprocal friends with both sock puppet *** [v1] and *** [v2].*** became reciprocal friends with *** on Jan 9 but deleted the friendship within 24 hours. *** goes on to play 3 Tichu games with ***, 8 with/against sock puppet or friendly second account, ***, 1 against sock puppet *** [v2] (later***), and 1 game with *** [v2].

Whereas *** is most likely playing as both *** and the accompanying sock puppet for the majority of plays, it’s possible that a colluding friend ran one of the secondary accounts—particularly when a game involved two friendlies—and deliberately threw the game to support *** rise. Or, perhaps the accounts are managed by multiple people, say a couple? Whatever the case, both *** and *** partnered with *** against one of the sock puppet accounts, meaning they were both aware if not directly complicit in *** ELO boosting schemes. In all, ***,***,***, and *** played 83 combined games with secondary accounts owned by ***.


*** ascendant

Image

Given the rapid ELO gains new accounts earn with each win, ***[v2] was sitting at 317 ELO on Jan 1, 2022 after only 8 games. Recognizing an opportunity—if not the plan all along—*** would leave nothing to chance going forward. The next 18 games would include one or two ‘friendly’ accounts, with *** playing as both *** as well as own partner, an opponent, or both.

By Jan 7, *** had changed the*** account profile (country: Estonia, language: none) and it ranked #1 in Arena and #3 All-time after 8 days and 22 games (only 6 of first 8 not involving cheating and/or sock puppetry, if keeping track at home). The entire BGA Tichu player base observed this fledging newcomer with [s]apprehension[/s] bemused indifference.

Unexpectedly, another player,***, surpassed *** on Jan 10, the day before the Arena season’s end. *** wasn’t about to let the (meaningless) Reigning Champion achievement badge slip away after the multitudinal account shenanigans (imagine all the email addresses needed!) and rose to the cheat.

Since *** had already deleted most sock puppets, 2 more were spawned: ***and ***(renamed ***), the latter used to play against *** to get that account to the minimum 100 point ELO threshold for Arena play.

Moments after *** was eligible, *** plays Arena as *** and sock puppet *** is randomly assigned to the opposing side and sabotages the unwittingly opponent. Next *** played *** and primary *** account together, and in the final hour of the season, the last two games are (1) *** against *** and *** and (2) *** with *** against ***.

The 7th Arena season ends and*** [v2] finished #1. Now to delete the evidence: *** renames the account *** (a variation of ***, a username used 3 times already) and changes the profile once again (country: Argentina; language: Spanish). Then *** closes *** and … wait, more opportunity … uses *** to boost the ELO of his latest namesake account: *** (with a lower case * instead of an uppercase * this time; clever, no?). The sock puppet is renamed *** and closed, countries and languages on profiles changed, and inconvenient friendships between accounts deleted. *** secret self-perpetuated fraud thought fully obscured (it wasn’t).

***

All 20 games with supporting friends and sock puppets to boost *** ELO:

***

Likely giddy and eager to maintain the fraud, *** plans for the future but the celebration is short-lived. The moderators respond, enacting a forever ban against accounts ***, ***, and ***, and reset Tichu ELO to 0 for accounts *** [v2] (now ***),*** (country: France; language: English, Spanish, French, Russian),*** (now, country: Turkmenistan; language: English, Spanish, French, Russian), ***, ***, and ***.

***
***

Between the primary***and *** [v2] accounts, this player played with and against themself more than 340 times, using at least two accounts simultaneously over dozens of plays of Tichu, BANG!, Chess, Papayoo, and perhaps others. Of *** ***478 plays of BANG!, 120 were abandoned (25%): 90 by *** and 30 by a sock puppet when *** was also in the game. For Tichu, 13 of ***141 plays of Tichu abandoned (9%): 7 by *** and 6 by sock puppets either playing with or against ***.


Exile and Return?

***

Despite the flagrant cheating and sock puppetry defining the fleeting reign of *** as well as the moderation of collaborating and secondary accounts, the primary beneficiary from all the chicanery survives: *** (formerly ***, aka ***, of 0 ELO infamy, and “Reigning Champion” of S7 Arena Tichu, may they live forever) is still among us.

This player (or, players?) hiding behind a beaucoup of aliases, devices, and IP addresses is all too eager to share (on this very forum, in fact) their delusions of grandeur, egomaniacal justifications for cheating, and disingenuous and unsubstantiated allegations against those that rank higher. This player evidently refuses to accept that one can actually improve at games such as Tichu and BANG!, win a majority of the time, and rank high, without behaving unethically and anti-competitively. Even as the moderator guillotine fell, *** was opening new accounts ***, both subsequently banned (opening new accounts after moderation is forbidden) but others sure to follow.

I know users who only play with random teams or in Arena mode as an effort to avoid potential cheating at tables with a preset seating order. It’s a shame this doesn’t ensure a fair partnership game.

In the grand scheme of everything, this artifice doesn’t matter. We’re all playing online games with strangers and earning meaningless internet points and accolades to fill time and make us forget about our own mortality, if only for a moment (ahh... suppress, suppress!). Which makes the cheating all the more pathetic. So, we’ll give the remaining open accounts belonging to this player a*** and move on. Hopefully this player will as well.

FIN

***Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion. Links to specific players or games have been removed.
Last edited by NeanderthalMan on 17 March 2023, 15:07, edited 49 times in total.
User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by NeanderthalMan »

***(non-exhaustive)

For more players cheating at Tichu visit the companion post: ***

Ranges are open/close dates; underlined date 00/00/00 indicates an account that's still open.

***




*Moderation Edit: please do not use the Forums to call players out by name, this is what the Moderation Reports are for. The Forums should remain a general discussion.
Last edited by NeanderthalMan on 14 January 2022, 02:05, edited 6 times in total.
User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by NeanderthalMan »

(Reserved 1)
User avatar
frankenStain
Posts: 79
Joined: 02 December 2020, 01:18

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by frankenStain »

thanks - more then helpful this post was really fun!! :D

what would be even funnier: if he revives old accounts and generates new ones, to spam your poll with "No"... :P
User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by NeanderthalMan »

frankenStain wrote: 13 January 2022, 23:54what would be even funnier: if he revives old accounts and generates new ones, to spam your poll with "No"... :P
Couldn't imagine this player investing that much effort for something so frivolous.
User avatar
Kissmy4ce
Posts: 21
Joined: 05 January 2022, 13:41

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by Kissmy4ce »

:D :D :D :D :D
Really really really really really really funny story , I like it.

I can explain you for chess and connect4 ... not really difficult to understand that s for up karma quickly ;)
User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by NeanderthalMan »

Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:50I can explain you for chess and connect4 ... not really difficult to understand that s for up karma quickly ;)
What do you need karma for, isn't it all offset by bad faith anyway?
User avatar
Kissmy4ce
Posts: 21
Joined: 05 January 2022, 13:41

Re: The Rise and Fall of •

Post by Kissmy4ce »

One day you will know the true story...
You will be surprise I think ...
User avatar
Kissmy4ce
Posts: 21
Joined: 05 January 2022, 13:41

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by Kissmy4ce »

NeanderthalMan wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:59
Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:50I can explain you for chess and connect4 ... not really difficult to understand that s for up karma quickly ;)
What do you need karma for, isn't it all offset by bad faith anyway?
need 60% karma to play arena . If you have bad reputation you cant play arena.
30 rounds = 0 to 60. Connect4 faster than tichu or bang.
User avatar
NeanderthalMan
Posts: 76
Joined: 02 November 2020, 05:09

Re: The Rise and Fall of *

Post by NeanderthalMan »

Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 03:33
NeanderthalMan wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:59
Kissmy4ce wrote: 14 January 2022, 01:50I can explain you for chess and connect4 ... not really difficult to understand that s for up karma quickly ;)
What do you need karma for, isn't it all offset by bad faith anyway?
need 60% karma to play arena . If you have bad reputation you cant play arena.
30 rounds = 0 to 60. Connect4 faster than tichu or bang.
So you played against yourself to boost karma to get to Arena faster to play against yourself and boost ELO. Ingénieux!
Post Reply

Return to “Tichu”