Board Game Arena

Why are there no 4-player tournaments?
WSBG BGA has 4p format as well as LAN WSBG, so why dont we start playing 4p only?

4P gets more players involved while using less materials. That could be a reason why that's the player count for TfM tournaments IRL.

Oh come on nobody going to tell him that 4p is for noobs? I have to be the bad guy here? TO use 4p IRL for logistic reasons, no top players want to compete in 4p. The skill ceiling for 4p is sooooo low comparing to 2/3p. Alright, I shared the truth I am done, I am sorry.

RoyalRook wrote: ↑12 November 2025, 03:55 Oh come on nobody going to tell him that 4p is for noobs? I have to be the bad guy here? TO use 4p IRL for logistic reasons, no top players want to compete in 4p. The skill ceiling for 4p is sooooo low comparing to 2/3p. Alright, I shared the truth I am done, I am sorry.

Lol, man that has never competed in serious 4P tournaments criticises something.

What experience are you realistically even basing this on? How many 4 player tournaments have you even played? How many 4 player tournaments have you played against people that regularly play against other good 4 player players?

Dikvarkentje wrote: ↑12 November 2025, 05:42

RoyalRook wrote: ↑12 November 2025, 03:55 Oh come on nobody going to tell him that 4p is for noobs? I have to be the bad guy here? TO use 4p IRL for logistic reasons, no top players want to compete in 4p. The skill ceiling for 4p is sooooo low comparing to 2/3p. Alright, I shared the truth I am done, I am sorry.

Lol, man that has never competed in serious 4P tournaments criticises something.

What experience are you realistically even basing this on? How many 4 player tournaments have you even played? How many 4 player tournaments have you played against people that regularly play against other good 4 player players?

I participated in many 4p online tournaments in every format imaginable with top players at the time. The discord tournaments are far more advanced than any real life tournaments. We also found out that without rebalanced, it's not fun to play with Point Luna with colony in 4p, it will score over 145 points easily in a top player's hand in a two and half hour game. Even though I was super deep in the tournament because it was during pandemic and I played it very seriously, It wasn't fun at all(and guess which corp I lost to), after that tournament, pretty much no one bothered with unrebalanced version of TM past prelude without rebalanced or league server, until * added Venus just because we are so tired of 2p prelude.

P.S. Oh check out your profile picture, if you already know why pretend that you don't know? 3p is fun, 4p is dumb, 5p is let's do a joke game. 4p doesn't even work with colony because you get lock out of Luna by seating. The game doesn't work with 4p competitive speaking. The draft is completely blind, it's just a much lower skilled game.

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms

I wouldn't have put it in potentially insulting words like the poster above me but he's right. In a 4P in-person tournament, I was sitting at the finalist table and the guy next to me announces he learned the game on that day. There you go, first-time player lucking into the final table.

*moderators removed post for insults

*moderators removed post for insults

G00dy wrote: ↑12 November 2025, 00:33 Why are there no 4-player tournaments?
WSBG BGA has 4p format as well as LAN WSBG, so why dont we start playing 4p only?

I think anyone can set up a tournament, so if it's something that you want, you should go for it!

They do come around every so often - I'm actually playing one at the moment: https://boardgamearena.com/tournament?id=437936. To be honest, I slightly regret having signed up - but now that I'm in, I'll stick with this one for the ride.

To my shame, I have to admit that I bailed out of a tournament here on BGA once - only once. And that was in 4p-format. I recall I got massively frustrated at the slow pace of play, with some players running out of time and even then starting on a cycle of single actioning every turn. After that game, I left the tournament and skipped 4p-tournaments, until the one I linked to above came along and I thought I'd give it another try.

The format comes with a few major drawbacks in turn-based tournament games. If you add a draft, the time it takes to complete a single game balloons massively. And so the few 4p tournaments I've seen typically skip the draft, offering four cards every research phase from which you can choose. You can make the case that this simply calls for a different skill set compared to drafting, and that 4p gives different dynamics, but it's an acquired taste. I did some experimenting with turn-based Play mode games this summer. I discovered that my personal preference for a fun game is 3p, drafting, with a close second for 2p for Arena and tournament formats. In that experimentation phase, I also included a 4p and a 5p game, with draft, and in play mode that worked fine as the timing is less of an issue than it is in tournaments. But having played one game in 4p and one in 5p, I didn't start any additional games, while I did start a ton in 3p mode, and on various maps - and promptly organised a tournament in 3p format to boot. For me, this was simply a manner of discovering personal gameplay preferences.

Long story short: 4p can be entertaining, but from what I can see, it comes with major drawbacks in online tournament play.

On a final note: sozubaru wrote:
I think anyone can set up a tournament, so if it's something that you want, you should go for it!
Anyone can set up a tournament, as long as they are a premium member.