Board Game Arena

Bärenpark 643875236 and 642946828 were both tied games in a single elimination tournament. In the first game I advanced and in the second my opponent did. I can’t see the logic - is it just a coin toss?

Some speculated that the player seniority determines the winner (in other words, older account advanced).
But I don't think this is true, if it were you should have advanced both times.
Maybe the player order? I'm not sure.

Can you post a link to the tournament and/or the games?

ufm wrote: ↑17 March 2025, 10:23 Some speculated that the player seniority determines the winner (in other words, older account advanced).

This is specifically if the tie results from a player being expelled. These were ties resulting from the rules of the game itself.

BananaHarambe wrote: ↑17 March 2025, 21:44 Can you post a link to the tournament and/or the games?

https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=365523

somukeru wrote: ↑17 March 2025, 09:05 is it just a coin toss?

Yes, seems to be a coin toss.

Some previous discussions about ties in single-elimination tournaments:
viewtopic.php?t=17794
viewtopic.php?t=36559
viewtopic.php?t=29624

Of course some games have their own tiebreakers. For example in Wingspan, if scores are tied at the end of the game, then the player with more food wins. But that's not the type of tiebreaker we're interested in; we want to know who advances when the game reports a "true tie", by which I mean, all the game's own tiebreakers (if any) still result in a tie. Best guess: it's just a random draw, each of the two players having an equal chance of advancing.

Edited to add: as mentioned in previous threads, BGA ought to document somewhere what happens in the case of a tie. It should be documented both on a web page available to players before they play (such as a FAQ or TOS document), and on the specific results page for the tournament, in the display of the standings there should be a notation to the effect of, "Blabunka won the coin toss and therefore advances."

Thanks. It does seem to be something that BGA could easily document.

somukeru wrote: ↑18 March 2025, 00:12 Thanks. It does seem to be something that BGA could easily document.

Add it to the long list of things that should be in a tournament FAQ.

So it’s confirmed that who advances in a tie is random?

What about multiplayer elimination when a player is skipped, also confirmed random? What if it’s 4 player, 2 advance and there’s a skip?

Is the account age theory debunked?

BananaHarambe wrote: ↑18 March 2025, 07:22 So it’s confirmed that who advances in a tie is random?

You mean for single-elimination tournaments? No, BGA has never confirmed this (as far as I know).

BananaHarambe wrote: ↑18 March 2025, 07:22What about multiplayer elimination when a player is skipped

In multi-elimination tournaments, it seems that age of account determines who advances where the game page indicates a tie: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35946 (Again, this has not been confirmed by BGA, but I am not aware of any counterexample, in a multiplayer elimination tournament.)