Time Zone Problems With Tournaments

[Big Bad Lex]

I originally posted this in the Suggestions section but it received no replies. Since then I am encountering this issue again-

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 when I sign in. 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. In the previously mentioned 4 tournaments another player has terminated the game and have suffered time and ranking points penalties as a result.

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 GMT, but I followed the USA player on Pacific Daylight Time.

For this reason now 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 hours of darkness and when time zones don't align?

[Meeplelowda]

Please can the time penalty issue be reassessed to compensate for the hours of darkness and when time zones don't align?

Choosing tournaments compatible with your sleep schedule is entirely in your power because the time settings are shown (in your time zone) on the tournament page before you register.

There are two types of tournaments. Those with a 12-hour playing hours window set and those without. When playing hours are set, your clock will not run at all outside of those hours. For example, if you join a tournament with playing hours of 11.00-23.00 your time, your clock will NEVER run while you are asleep. If the tournament has playing hours, they are shown in your local time on the tournament page before you register for the tournament so you don't have to do any conversion.

The other type of tournament has clocks that run 24 hours a day. If you're in a tournament that has no playing hours, then check the length of the round and make sure it's long enough that in a worst case scenario you can lose 8 hours off your clock every day while sleeping and not run out of time. This may mean you have to avoid tournaments with 3 or 5 or even 7-day rounds depending on the game.