Board Game Arena

TL:DR: Real-time tournaments should send a sound alert at the opening of each match, the way it is currently sucks and contributes to waiting and match losses.

I assume that the common absence of players in real-time tournaments is caused by people not putting it in their calendars and forgetting they had signed up. But the way tournaments work and are shown could also be improved to increase participance -> EDIT: WT* REAL-TIME GAMES AREN'T SHOWING IN THE AGENDA ON THE FRONT PAGE AT ALL

I lost due to absence in a real-time single-elimination tournament after waiting for two rounds. This is at least the second time this has happened to me now, and it's really annoying.

Case:

• I'm browsing BGA and I'm signed up to a real-time tournament. I join the game from the pop-up alerting match start and I see that my opponent hasn't joined/isn't online. Ok, that means the game is abandoned and that I'll just have to wait until the next round.
  
  In the meantime, I play through my turn-based queue, but I always keep a tab with the tournament page open. Eventually, when time runs out, a pop-up message indicates it's time to join the game for the second round, but I only saw this because I was on the main site, not in a game-tab, or I would have missed the *silent* pop-up.
  
  Well, second round, still no opponent, I'll have to wait again. I start browsing some other pages, then kind of forget about this. Result: lost
  third round.
  
  You can't except us to sit and watch constantly the tournament page while waiting for 2-3 rounds because of missing players. But that is what we have to do, and that is why even though I like real-time tournaments, it is such a hassle.
  
  First I'm annoyed from having to wait to play and wait to join games *just in time*, then I annoy other people because I wasn't hypervigilant about the next round *silently* starting. And my opponent for sure could have sent me a message if they saw that I was online.

Ok, that was the story. So here is how starting tournament matches currently works, from my understanding:
1. The match opens so players can join: a pop-up is shown in the bottom right corner
The issue is with point 1: there is no audible alert following this

(1.5 Opponents joining the game: I believe the knock-knock sound* will only sound if you have joined the game yourself already, so you will not be notified of this at all if you missed the pop-up.)

2. The game starting: The game won't start until both players have joined the game.
Imagine if you were waiting for your opponent, and your opponent joins just before the time runs out, will the the real-time tournament match *beep* and steal the page the way ALL other real-time games do? Or will there only be that knock-knock-sound?

My suggestion is: add an alert to the tournament pop-up OR make the tournament send a message at the start of each match.

I've joined a real-time playing group, where they announce in shortening increments about the game starting. Good for getting players, and good for reminding, because whenever their is a message, there is a sound and a TRACE of the message lingers on as a chat box!

(In general it's hard to navigate these tournaments. Had it not been for the banner at the top, it would be almost impossible. In order to join the game if you for some reason missed the joining pop-up, you'll have to navigate to the specific match in the matches view, which can be hard due to a large amount of matches. Or the specific game's page, that is probably easier.)

* For a list of available sounds and their names, see page https://boardgamearena.com/preferences?section=sound