Board Game Arena

Congratulations to all participants and winners from the previous season. For the past 2 seasons, you have been able to enjoy the games in the format decided by players themselves, and this makes the Arena even more exciting! This season, more than 2.4 million Arena games have been played on BGA, which is an absolute record since the Arena exists!

But wait, what exactly is "the Arena?"

The Arena is the competitive mode on BGA. If you master a game and want to play it competitively, this is THE mode to use, so you can challenge the best players and get the most experience points.

The Arena is organized in seasons of 3 months each. Achievements are awarded to the best players at the end of each season.

To play in the Arena: select "Play" and then choose "Arena" instead of "Simple game."

Read more about Arena mode


Arena format and Gurus

In the latest 2 seasons, it was you (more exactly the gurus) who chose the game formats for the Arena: player number, options used, ...

We are very happy to see that this way of doing things contributed to making the Arena more popular: thank you to all gurus for their smart suggestions and their votes!


Rules updates

No Arena rules are changing this season. It does not mean we are 100% satisfied about how the Arena is running, but you seem to appreciate the current rules so we want to keep them as they are for now.


Cheating

Some (rare) case of cheating have been spotted in the previous season. You have to keep in mind that a player cheating the Arena is quite easy to spot, by admins, moderators, and even by simple players. Thus, it is impossible to heavily abuse the system without triggering warnings.

Our advise: please do not lose time trying to cheat the system: it will consume an incredible amount of your time, and at the end all your efforts will be ruined and your account will be removed.


Season 9 is NOW Launched.

The new Arena is now open for its new season.


Some Explanation About: Relegations

At the end of each season, after winners have been awarded, you are relegated.

Some custom relegation rules may have been applied to a game for some reason (ex: we decided to reduce the number of leagues), but in general here is what happens:

• For games with 6 or 5 different leagues, all players are decreased by 3 leagues.
• For games with 4 different leagues, all players are decreased by 2 leagues.
• For games with 2 or 3 different leagues, all players are decreased by 1 league.
• For all games and all leagues, your number of Arena points is reset to 1, and your AES ("Arena Elo") is reset to 1500.

It's up to you to find the way to the elite!


May the odds be ever in your favor!

Complete list of all Arena format changes:

Race for the Galaxy:

• Expansion: "Brink of War + Rebel vs. Imperium + The Gathering Storm" (prev: "Base game")
• Takeover: "Random" (prev: "No takeover")
• Goals: "On" (prev: "Off")

Stone Age:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "4")

Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype:

• Variant: "Random start" (prev: "Rule of Chaos")

Hawaii:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Koi-Koi:

• Scoring type: "Hard Koi-Koi" (prev: "Soft Koi-Koi")
• First to play (dealer): "Winner starts the next month" (prev: "Alternate the starting player")

Gear & Piston:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

Tzolk'in:

• Uxmal corn limit: "No limit" (prev: "Limit to 20 corn (designer variant)")

Tokaido:

• Crossroads: "Off" (prev: "On")

Armadöra:

• Advanced Rules: "No" (prev: "Yes")

Quantum:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Colt Express:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

Love Letter:

• Number of players: "4" (prev: "5")

Crazy Farmers:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Jump Gate:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Eruption:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Russian Railroads:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Terra Mystica:

• Landscapes expansion: "On" (prev: "Off")

Dragon Keeper: The Dungeon:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Dice Forge:

• Dice Forge Rebellion: "Cards only" (prev: "Off")

French Tarot:

• Number of players: "4" (prev: "5")
• Bonuses: "Poignées only" (prev: "Poignées + Misères")
• Minimal bid: "Small" (prev: "Guard")

Eminent Domain:

• Escalation Expansion: "On" (prev: "Off")

7 Wonders:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

The Ruhr: A Story of Coal Trade:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Saint Poker:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")
• scoring: "RankAndRound" (prev: "Standard")
• hand: "Omaha" (prev: "Texas")

Veletas:

• Board Size: "10 x 10" (prev: "9 x 9")

Marram:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Papayoo:

• Number of players: "4" (prev: "5")

Big Time Soccer:

• Game length: "Short Match" (prev: "Standard")

Connect Four:

• Board size: "9x9" (prev: "8x9")

Marrakech:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

Hungarian Tarokk:

• Game log detail: "Log individual cards as they are played" (prev: "Only log winners of tricks")

City of the Big Shoulders:

• Public Goals: "No" (prev: "Yes")

Barbu:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")
• Trumps: "No" (prev: "Yes")
• Type of deck: "36-card deck" (prev: "32-card deck")
• Salade: "Yes" (prev: "No")

Dingo's Dreams:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Unconditional Surrender! World War 2 in Europe:

• Scenarios: "France 1944" (prev: "USSR 1941")
• Weather: "Follow rules" (prev: "Historical weather")

Klaverjassen:

• Last card: "Automatic" (prev: "Default")

Turn the tide:

• Number of players: "5" (prev: "4")

Kami:

• Game Modes: "Kami" (prev: "Soldier")

Krosmaster Arena:

• Format: " BGA Season 9" (prev: " BGA Season 8")

Krosmaster Blast:

• Board: "Random" (prev: "Mountain (10x10)")
• Rules: "1 Random Divine Challenge" (prev: "Sadida's Secret Garden")

Tichu:

• Game length: "Classic (1000 points)" (prev: "Half Game (500 points)")

Thurn and Taxis:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Spades:

• Scoring tricks of nil Player: "Bags and no team tricks" (prev: "No bags and no team tricks")

Fleet:

• Number of players: "4" (prev: "2")

Oh-Seven:

• Card-passing variant: "Disabled" (prev: "Enabled")

Dice Hospital:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Herrlof:

• 5-point bonus (2P game only): "For 3, 4, or 5 tricks" (prev: "For 3 or 4 tricks only (standard)")

Detective Poker:

• Expert: "Yes" (prev: "No")

Sparts:

• Hearts mode: "Traditional - pass 3 | 2♣ lead | no points first trick" (prev: "Sparts - pass 4 | any lead | points may be played first trick")

Nidavellir:

• Expansion: "None" (prev: "Thingvellir")

Railroad Ink:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Go Nuts for Donuts:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "5")

Mattock:

• Board size: "5 hexagons per edge" (prev: "7 hexagons per edge")

LLAMA:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

Cloud City:

• Upgraded Models Variant: "Two" (prev: "Off")

Cardiceo:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Space Base:

• Number of players: "4" (prev: "3")
• Game Start: "Light-Speed Variant" (prev: "Normal Rules")

King of the Pitch:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

Star Fluxx:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

King of Tokyo:

• “Battle of the Gods, part I” event (Cultists): "Enabled" (prev: "Disabled")

Railways of the World:

• Number of players: "5" (prev: "3")
• Game Map: "Railways of North America (Max 5 players)" (prev: "Railways of Mexico (Max 4 players)")

Mascarade:

• Scenarios: "Advanced" (prev: "Standard")

Number Drop:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

PARKS:

• Expansion Set: "Base game + expansion" (prev: "Base game")

Deus:

• Public display of other player's private VP tokens: "Yes" (prev: "No")

A Feast for Odin:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

Gaia Project:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "4")

Las Vegan:

• Number of players: "3" (prev: "2")

7 Wonders Architects:

• Number of players: "2" (prev: "3")

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑12 April 2022, 17:10 Cheating

Some (rare) case of cheating have been spotted in the previous season. You have to keep in mind that a player cheating the Arena is quite easy to spot, by admins, moderators, and even by simple players. Thus, it is impossible to heavily abuse the system without triggering warnings.

Our advise: please do not lose time trying to cheat the system: it will consume an incredible amount of your time, and at the end all your efforts will be ruined and your account will be removed.

This has proven not to be true.

At Tichu in the past two seasons massive fraud happened and the cheater was allowed to keep his medals and trophies. At Season 7 he got his ELO reset to 0 and his aliasses got banned, but he was allowed to keep his main account including the rank 1 medal, although he was found guilty playing against his own accounts for days in order to climb the ladder of the arena.
At Season 8 the same guy made his comeback and got stopped by courageous players that made his karma drop below 60% to block him from arena. Again his ELO got reset, but he was allowed to keep all his arena points again.

If you think that prosecutors and moderators will handle massive cheating in the arena format, you gonna be disappointed quickly.

For 2 seasons, you can enjoy the different games in the format decided by players themselves, and this makes the Arena even more exciting! This season, more than 2.4 millions of Arena games has been played on BGA, which is an absolute record since the Arena exists!

Whoever wrote this post needs to check out Duolingo.

were there changes to the number of levels (bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond) before you reach elite? Some very popular games only have a few levels, but other less popular games have a lot of levels (perhaps from when they were more popular). The number of levels does not seem to correlate well with the number of Arena players. I posted about this in a forum here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... 89#p104189

Anyone else a little disappointed there wasn’t a flanders in the image? Unless I missed it.

Wuuuuut???? Cheating????
Either I'm too lucky for meeting this situation, or I'm too insensitive to notice it.

7 Wonders Arcitects -incredibly disappointing to see two player terrible change. Much like Potion Explosion

That's very nice and all but where is Ned Flanders?

Qualitaetsgarant wrote: ↑12 April 2022, 17:23

sourisdudesert wrote: ↑12 April 2022, 17:10 Cheating

Some (rare) case of cheating have been spotted in the previous season. You have to keep in mind that a player cheating the Arena is quite easy to spot, by admins, moderators, and even by simple players. Thus, it is impossible to heavily abuse the system without triggering warnings.

Our advise: please do not lose time trying to cheat the system: it will consume an incredible amount of your time, and at the end all your efforts will be ruined and your account will be removed.

This has proven not to be true.

At Tichu in the past two seasons massive fraud happened and the cheater was allowed to keep his medals and trophies. At Season 7 he got his ELO reset to 0 and his aliasses got banned, but he was allowed to keep his main account including the rank 1 medal, although he was found guilty playing against his own accounts for days in order to climb the ladder of the arena.
At Season 8 the same guy made his comeback and got stopped by courageous players that made his karma drop below 60% to block him from arena. Again his ELO got reset, but he was allowed to keep all his arena points again.

If you think that prosecutors and moderators will handle massive cheating in the arena format, you gonna be disappointed quickly.

There was also cheating in Lewis & Clark arena in the past, also players found guilty but got away with only a warning...