Getting penalized for sleeping

[deebo7of9]

I am in the US and am always the first player in a tournament even if there is another person playing that is located in the US. As a result when I wake up Monday morning I am already 8 hours into the game (before I've even gotten the email that the same has started). Most times the third player plays in the middle of the night (for me) so even though I play very quickly during waking hours I am constantly getting the red clock because I am sleeping. Is there anything I can do about this?

[Meeplelowda]

Is there anything I can do about this?

Yes. Only enter tournaments with a long time to make each move (shown under "Game Speed" in the tournament lobby), or only enter tournaments whose active hours do not greatly overlap with the hours you are asleep. The playing hours are shown translated to your time zone under "Playing hours" in the tournament lobby.

[deebo7of9]

Thanks I had no idea that there were active playing hours.

[Meeplelowda]

Thanks I had no idea that there were active playing hours.

"Playing hours" is a setting only for turn-based tournaments (obviously real time tournaments require you to be present at a set time). But not all turn-based tournaments have playing hours. Or stated more precisely, not all turn-based tournaments limit the playing hours, i.e., some (most?) have 24/7 playing hours.

By the way, it is possible to make moves outside of the playing hours. The playing hours are just when your clock is running, but I've played an entire match outside the playing hours because my opponent and I happened to be on at the same time and just played it effectively real-time.

[CaptainKirk]

I have the same issue and have concluded that I just can't join tournaments where there are a great number of turns. For example, Lucky Numbers is a simple, fun game, but it's quite a few moves over the course of a 2- or 3-game match. When I play with foreign players, I take my turn right before the sun rises for them and then I'm offline for several hours. Even though I am online and making moves throughout my waking day, I end up timing out.

I almost never time out in a regular game, and I would only prematurely "leave" a game if there was a major technical issue, but this has happened to me far more often in the tournament setting. Looking at the clock settings would undoubtedly help, but it seems like it's more than that a lot of times (or maybe I just am attracted to tournaments set up by European players )

Luckily, there are some tournaments that seem to attract players who take turns more regularly, like Can't Stop and Flaming Pyramids. I really love the tourney format, but need to avoid the unsatisfying outcome of time-outs (for me and others).

[deebo7of9]

My game of choice for tourneys is Azul but I also like architects I'm still having trouble with this. We will be 8 hours in before I even get notice that the game has started. I've joined about 6 tourneys and now I need to know how to unsubscribe from them without disrupting the present game or losing karma points. One of the games I joined has 6 players. That's too much. I prefer playing with 2 or 4 maximum.

[GeraldineMerida]

My game of choice for tourneys is Azul but I also like architects I'm still having trouble with this. We will be 8 hours in before I even get notice that the game has started. I've joined about 6 tourneys and now I need to know how to unsubscribe from them without disrupting the present game or losing karma points. One of the games I joined has 6 players. That's too much. I prefer playing with 2 or 4 maximum.

Once a tournament has started, you can resign from it, but you will lose a few karma points. Go to the tournament page and click the red 'withdraw from the tournament' button.

But why not just get into the habit of reading the full tournament description, including number of players per match, before you join?

Quitting later on may mean some other players have to skip rounds because the numbers are no longer splittable into the predetermined table sizes, so is quite annoying, and since tournaments have a maximum size, you may have stopped another player joining who would gladly have played till the end (hence the karma penalty).

[craftingfish]

I recently joined my first tournament and I've had the exact same frustration. Since joining I've tried looking for playing hours but they're few and far between. I wish it were a searchable setting

[JCWeb]

Yes, this to me is the biggest reason I stopped playing tournaments for a long time on BGA -- it was frustrating when the game was about who could manipulate the time zone situation the best, not who was the best at a particular game. Recently, I got into one tournament last fall where the situation seemed to improve -- maybe because most of us were in North America and maybe the time constraints were a bit more relaxed, I dunno. Now that one of my favs, Obsession is on the site and I just got over 100 Elo to qualify, I have taken the plunge to sign up for more tournaments in that game; we will see how it goes.

[DJ377]

Someone just expelled me in Blood Rage for this, and I was winning! The big fat cheat! Is there any way I can contest this?