Board Game Arena

Thanks everyone for playing who played today. Let me know what you think about these short games, whether it’s positive or negative.
Today’s tournament was a test, not only to see if we like these short games, but also how much time an event like this would take.

Please comment, even if you didn’t play today.

Short games are good for these huge formats IMO. A lot of these comments are gonna say it ruins it but I like a bit of variety myself.

Best case scenario for short games is to either give the added tome bonus to players for making a move or just estimate based on longer games how long each round takes based on thinking time. Anyways well done for the organization today and of course first time at everything isn't going to be perfect. I'm willing to join another one if you host

My perspective: I wouldn't normally have signed up for a tournament, but knowing it was going to be short encouraged me to give it a try.

Now I'm more open to trying a longer one next time.

I like 1 round games for a swiss system tournament.
Unfortunately, we had a lot of no-shows in the first round, but i'm not sure how to solve it. Maybe restrict the tournament to a registration group, and create the tournament only 30-60 min early so that people have enough time to join ?

KatyaM wrote: ↑09 February 2025, 14:43 There was a strong correlation between people leaving / not showin up and their rating.

This is certainly true. I think ‘’invitation only’’ will solve a lot. Players can message that they want an invite. I will restrict to 200+ players from now on. Although, we had some players below that, that finished this last tournament, and that earns respect too. Most players will reach 200 elo if they play much.

Some players getting 4 points, while others get 5 or 6, when they all sat out, has always been an issue. I think we can eliminate players sitting out altogether, if we set up 5p games, with a 4p minimum. With reliable players, like we’ve enjoyed so many times on Card Ranchers leagues, we wont have players dropping out so much.

The big question is ‘’1-round games’’? I think this setting was successful. I got some positive feedback although I haven't talked to a lot of the players.

If we invite a nice round number of players, 20, 25, or 30, and we allow a 4p minimum, just in case 1 or 2 people don’t show up, everyone will play every round. With reliable players like we have had on leagues, we would have been done in an hour.

A 33 point game can be 1,2 or 3 rounds. This will create down time between games. The best alternative I think is 3-round games. Games will be somewhat the same length, and fewer times switching tables. 5 games with reliable players could be done in 2 hours I think.

This is why "multiplayer elimination" is better than Swiss. For Swiss, absent players corrupt the entire tournament. For multiplayer elimination, the absent players get knocked out in the first two rounds.

FSKFSK wrote: ↑09 February 2025, 23:33 This is why "multiplayer elimination" is better than Swiss. For Swiss, absent players corrupt the entire tournament. For multiplayer elimination, the absent players get knocked out in the first two rounds.

Players who didn't join their table in time where kicked from the tournament as soon as they were absent. Most of them happened in the first round, but some also left in the following rounds. Every round without a new no-show went smoothly