Tactical red thumbs VS arena mode

[MatthieuP]

Hello,

It seems to me that some people have found a very strange and unfair use of "red thumb". By giving a "red thumb" to all expert players (in a game with few players, it's not a big job), they ensure they only play against lower level players.
In fact, it seems to me that it shouldn't be possible to avoid playing against a specific player in the arena, it's against the very principle of the arena mode : the competition is distorted.
My apologies if this topic has already been discussed.

[Pleints]

I agree, I'd much rather see people with no opponents because of red thumping get no games instead

[lityi]

I've also witness that problem, players using the red thumb system to avoid playing against expert players in arena mode and ending up being in the top. That makes the competition unfair and definitely less interesting.

I would also suggest that in arena mode we cannot avoid a specific opponent as easily as that.

[MatthieuP]

Bonjour, je remonte ce topic.
J'aimerais savoir si le cas que je présente est un bug ou bien s'il est clairement permis par les règles.

Aujourd'hui dans un jeu où je vise le podium d'arène, j'ai un concurrent de niveau expert qui parvient à ne jamais jouer contre un joueur dangereux, ce qui est statistiquement impossible. Il a très certainement mis un pouce rouge à tous les adversaires dangereux.
Ma suggestion est simple : les pouces rouges ne devraient pas avoir d'effet dans l'arène mais uniquement sur les parties simples.

[phipsi89]

I experienced that behaviour of several players. Maybe the red-thump policy should be turned off in arena-mode.

[Sjarmtrollet]

I experienced that behaviour of several players. Maybe the red-thump policy should be turned off in arena-mode.

Do we know that it isn''t? I assumed that in Arena mode there is no way of impacting what players you meet, it's all automatically selected.

[Meeplelowda]

Do we know that it isn''t?

Yes. I'm pretty sure it has even been confirmed by BGA. Red thumbs do not affect tournaments, however.

I assumed that in Arena mode there is no way of impacting what players you meet, it's all automatically selected.

That would make sense, wouldn't it? You shouldn't be able to call yourself champion if you refuse to play the strongest players. But such is not the case.

[Boudinosore72]

Hello,

I would like to raise this subject again because I believe that the practice of the red thumb is developing more and more.

It is not normal that we crown cheaters at the end of each season knowing that they have never met opponents of their size. Maybe they don't have the courage...

This practice cannot continue because it no longer makes you want to play certain games.

I think we really need to remove this red thumb for arena mode and find an alternative solution to report a player.

Hoping that this message will find an echo in BGA

[Meeplelowda]

Hello,

I would like to raise this subject again because I believe that the practice of the red thumb is developing more and more.

It is not normal that we crown cheaters at the end of each season knowing that they have never met opponents of their size. Maybe they don't have the courage...

This practice cannot continue because it no longer makes you want to play certain games.

I think we really need to remove this red thumb for arena mode and find an alternative solution to report a player.

Hoping that this message will find an echo in BGA

BGA announced that this was supposed to go away in the current Arena season, but they did not implement it and have not explained why not.

[KenFin1]

Due to the stupid Elo changes a lot of people are red thumbing opponents to protect themselves against the negative Elo reductions that will result if they encounter someone too often in a period of time. This is the only way to prevent arena pairing you with the same player over and over (as it keeps doing to me in several games).

The subsequent problem is unless a player keeps good records there is no easy way to find who they red thumbed to go and undo it later

The problem (both of blocking and of multiple repeat pairings) is definitely worse this season Vs previous ones. I don't know whether it's because they changed the code or whether fewer people are playing following the recent botches or whether more people are blocking but I do not encounter the same diversity of players as I used to. There are several high ranked players in next station I never encounter.

The arena thumb problem is also worse since BGA removed the restriction on green thumb: red thumbs ratio. That made it a lot harder to blanket apply red thumbs before. Yet again BGA making needless changes that have a predictable negative effect which could easily have been foreseen and avoided.

Red thumbs should still apply in arena as elsewhere where you need to be able to block rude/insulting/cheating players using solvers etc.

Players suggested adding orange thumbs that auto expire after 24/48 hours to allows people to force the site to give them a different opponent and they did say they would consider it but no update since then.

I can think of various ways to improve arena but allow red thumbs to be retained and avoiding blanket blocking skewing arena results. Since BGA won't listen to testing feedback or community feedback I'm not sharing them. There's no point wasting my time explaining them