I have now encountered the following problem in four games.
When a tournament has players from Europe and the USA, there is of course a significant difference with time zones. The UK is 8 hours ahead of California, so with my usual bedtime being between 23.00 -00.00Hrs, any move a North American makes after c15.00hrs (US time) will not be seen by me until 8-9 hours later. Whilst I am pretty prompt when I am taking my moves when I'm awake I have often woken up to find myself with a spinning red timer extremely frequently, and have suffered penalties as a result.
Today a game of Orleans was terminated because it ran out of time despite the game being on its very last action for one player. I had a lead of 12 points, and was set for the win, BUT because the time ran out and my 'thinking time wasn't as good as the other UK player after me, I was placed third and they got the win despite having 50 VPs fewer than me. The reality is that the other UK player had a much better thinking time because they followed me in turn order on UK time, but I followed the USA player on USA time.
For this reason I will not join games with North American players because I seem to be so often placed in turn order after the USA. Unfortunately I cannot be selective with tournaments and seem to be suffering repeatedly as a result.
Please can the time penalty issue be reassessed to compensate for the pause that occurs with transatlantic opponents?
When a tournament has players from Europe and the USA, there is of course a significant difference with time zones. The UK is 8 hours ahead of California, so with my usual bedtime being between 23.00 -00.00Hrs, any move a North American makes after c15.00hrs (US time) will not be seen by me until 8-9 hours later. Whilst I am pretty prompt when I am taking my moves when I'm awake I have often woken up to find myself with a spinning red timer extremely frequently, and have suffered penalties as a result.
Today a game of Orleans was terminated because it ran out of time despite the game being on its very last action for one player. I had a lead of 12 points, and was set for the win, BUT because the time ran out and my 'thinking time wasn't as good as the other UK player after me, I was placed third and they got the win despite having 50 VPs fewer than me. The reality is that the other UK player had a much better thinking time because they followed me in turn order on UK time, but I followed the USA player on USA time.
For this reason I will not join games with North American players because I seem to be so often placed in turn order after the USA. Unfortunately I cannot be selective with tournaments and seem to be suffering repeatedly as a result.
Please can the time penalty issue be reassessed to compensate for the pause that occurs with transatlantic opponents?