Board Game Arena

Let's say: I am in a three player Azul game.

We are in the endgame. One of my opponents has burned all of his allotted time, and is now in the red, but has an insurmountable lead. My other opponent should easily be able to secure 2nd if they play their final turns correctly. But if they misplay, I can still claim 2nd place.

Obviously, I can time the leader out now, secure a neutral result and walk away with my elo unchanged. But it is more advantageous to me to wait and see what Player 2 does, I will gain elo if I secure a 2nd place result without timing the leader out. My question is: does BGA consider this sort of manipulation of timing tools to be legal?

You got this answer yesterday. Kicking someone for going over time is a legal move, no matter how bad sportsmanship it may be. I personally don't do it but people have the right to do it as it's in the rules of the site.

You are in control of your clock and it's your responsibility to make sure you always stay positive otherwise you risk getting kicked.

mods I got my answer, pls lock, ty

SiRan90 wrote: ↑25 June 2024, 10:22 You got this answer yesterday. Kicking someone for going over time is a legal move, no matter how bad sportsmanship it may be. I personally don't do it but people have the right to do it as it's in the rules of the site.

You are in control of your clock and it's your responsibility to make sure you always stay positive otherwise you risk getting kicked.

And the reason why I have reiterated it is to stress that there is a THIRD PLAYER who is being adversely affected by what is objectively cheating.

Apparently I wasn't clear enough about their being a third player. Not me. Someone else.

I get it, it's frustrating, especially for the third player that did no wrong but still doesn't get to finish their game properly. But them the rules when we agree to time limits and the risk of it happening are always there.

The rules on BGA are as follows if a player goes red (i.e. uses more time than allowed:

*) Any one of his opponents can kick this player without time out of the game - without any explanation. Just the fact that the other player is in red is justification enough.

*) If the game was a multi-player game the player that was kicked loses to all the other players. The other players all tie with each other. It does not matter who did the booting.

These two rules of BGA are very simple. Are they the best and fairest possible? Probably (Surely!) not. But they are the rules that are in place.

If you make up a parallel rule set on your own (i.e. a private definition of cheating,...) and are disappointed if your personal rules are not universally accepted by other players because they have no foundation at all on BGA - then you should not wonder if your argumentation will receive not much positive feedback.

If you want to be constructive write down your suggestions how to improve the situation via the Bugs/Suggestions feature of BGA and find people to vote for it.

I haven't "made up a parallel ruleset of my own", I am simply using the commonly accepted understanding that "manipulating reporting systems to secure a competitive advantage" is cheating. I'm qualified to do this, I've worked in online gaming for 25 years, including but not limited to senior technical positions on licensed gambling sites, and I can assure you that the standards applied here are, from an industry-wide perspective, extremely unusual.

As I have already made clear, I received my answer from the admins and, while I am absolutely staggered by it, I don't have anything else to add. I would like this thread to be locked.

It's an obvious unwanted side-effect from someone going out-of-time.

If you have a better solution, then you can raise a 'suggestion', and we can all vote for it.

The short answer is you have to accept that if you go over-time then that puts you into a very vulnerable position. The best is to try not to do that, ever.
If you think someone is abusing the time controls, then you can red-thumb that player.
BGA is a site for happy clappers. Play along, or make your own vice.

blundermoth wrote: ↑25 June 2024, 09:26 But it is more advantageous to me to wait and see what Player 2 does, I will gain elo if I secure a 2nd place result without timing the leader out.

But if you get 2nd place, the 3rd player may expel the leader and nullify your expected gain

Jellby wrote: ↑25 June 2024, 13:22 But if you get 2nd place, the 3rd player may expel the leader and nullify your expected gain

So... kick them! Kick them all out!