Board Game Arena

I was just curious if there are any tournaments played that are real time? Reason I ask is because I find turn based to be inconvenient. Waiting days for someone to take one turn can be a hassle, especially when I get busy with other things (like travel) and not knowing when your opponent will take their turn (ad also have an advantage in asking other people around them for help). I greatly prefer to play in tournaments that are in real time during a specific time period, that way I can give my full focus to the match and there can be less of a chance to cheat.

I'm going to guess the answer is no though.

They are there, but there are not very many of them compared to the turn based ones. And there is a logic to this - it is much more difficult to gather a lot of people at one time than to give everyone the opportunity to play when it suits them.

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 02:07 They are there, but there are not very many of them compared to the turn based ones. And there is a logic to this - it is much more difficult to gather a lot of people at one time than to give everyone the opportunity to play when it suits them.

That really blows. Because it really puts the blame on the player if they sit there waiting for a turn from another player, they reach the end of their time and you go to kick them and then they play at the last second, making the game go longer and the game expires at the end. And if you were losing in that instant, you're just screwed.

Archisian wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 02:27

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 02:07 They are there, but there are not very many of them compared to the turn based ones. And there is a logic to this - it is much more difficult to gather a lot of people at one time than to give everyone the opportunity to play when it suits them.

That really blows. Because it really puts the blame on the player if they sit there waiting for a turn from another player, they reach the end of their time and you go to kick them and then they play at the last second, making the game go longer and the game expires at the end. And if you were losing in that instant, you're just screwed.

I didn't quite understand you. Why would you wait until a player runs out of time in a turn-based game?

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 03:27

Archisian wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 02:27

Andrei3009 wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 02:07 They are there, but there are not very many of them compared to the turn based ones. And there is a logic to this - it is much more difficult to gather a lot of people at one time than to give everyone the opportunity to play when it suits them.

That really blows. Because it really puts the blame on the player if they sit there waiting for a turn from another player, they reach the end of their time and you go to kick them and then they play at the last second, making the game go longer and the game expires at the end. And if you were losing in that instant, you're just screwed.

I didn't quite understand you. Why would you wait until a player runs out of time in a turn-based game?

I'm saying because in turn-based games, you have a large time duration to complete a turn (like 12 hours+ sometimes). If I play a turn, I have to wait until the player completes their turn before I move onto my next one. I can't keep watching the game all the time. So, they are times when I go to sleep and my opponent hadn't played their turn and their time was almost up. Then, I'd wake up and, all of a sudden, my time is getting dangerously low.

Archisian wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 04:07 I'm saying because in turn-based games, you have a large time duration to complete a turn (like 12 hours+ sometimes). If I play a turn, I have to wait until the player completes their turn before I move onto my next one. I can't keep watching the game all the time. So, they are times when I go to sleep and my opponent hadn't played their turn and their time was almost up. Then, I'd wake up and, all of a sudden, my time is getting dangerously low.

Some tournaments have playing hours and your clock doesn't run outside of those hours. So it is within your power to only join tournaments that do not have playing hours when you are asleep. Alternatively, you can join a tournament with so much time on the clock that it doesn't matter if some of it gets lost while you're asleep.

Also, tournaments don't run like regular turn-based games. In a tournament tou have a set amount of time per round and no time gets added to your clock like it does in non-arena games. This is so that tournaments can have a maximum time in which they are guaranteed to finish.

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 05:08

Archisian wrote: ↑23 February 2026, 04:07 I'm saying because in turn-based games, you have a large time duration to complete a turn (like 12 hours+ sometimes). If I play a turn, I have to wait until the player completes their turn before I move onto my next one. I can't keep watching the game all the time. So, they are times when I go to sleep and my opponent hadn't played their turn and their time was almost up. Then, I'd wake up and, all of a sudden, my time is getting dangerously low.

Some tournaments have playing hours and your clock doesn't run outside of those hours. So it is within your power to only join tournaments that do not have playing hours when you are asleep. Alternatively, you can join a tournament with so much time on the clock that it doesn't matter if some of it gets lost while you're asleep.

Also, tournaments don't run like regular turn-based games. In a tournament tou have a set amount of time per round and no time gets added to your clock like it does in non-arena games. This is so that tournaments can have a maximum time in which they are guaranteed to finish.

I'll try and check the tournament details to make sure they can fit my schedule, then.

I love turn based tournaments, but I agree that more real time tournaments would be good because I want to compete and win trophies in all possible types of game settings.

The problem is that real time tournaments require the player to be present at the moment the game starts, so what happens effectively is that a large portion of the participating players will be missing. Not exactly the most satisfying situation for both the players and the organizer, so I suppose that's why not many of those get organized.

On the flip side, it makes winning those tournaments much easier, but obviously the achievement is not the same as when you win a tournament with a lot of players.

On the subject of turn based vs real time, I would say both have their value.

Real time is good at measuring how quickly a player can think, which is a quality that is highly valued in some games (think blitz chess for example).

Turn based on the other hand probably isn't going to test your ability to think quickly (unless you run out of time), but it allows players to take the time they need to come up with their best game. So if you want to see games played at their highest level, turn based is the venue for that (although it can happen sometimes that a player will pull off a real time game with about the same proficiency that turn based would allow).

There are, but the reason there aren't many is the vast majority of people will tell you they don't work, they sound good on paper, but in practice >80% of players won't turn up for the start time.

What you say is also linked to the reason, you want real-time tournaments that suit your playing hours, so you're already limiting the number of players who could possibly play. Once you factor in time commitment, it's just far more convenient to play turn based.