Board Game Arena

I'm just playing a game against a 600+ ELO player, they are losing/ have lost.

In the penultimate turn they let the clock tick over to 5 mins before taking their turn. (They were always showing online) and they don't appear to be playing any other games.

In the final turn we are now at nearly 20 mins.

I assume they want me to kick them, but I don't get why. They'll still take full ELO loss, or is it merely spiteful to stop me getting the full ELO gain (tracker is at 80%)

I'll leave the clock ticking - they can't start a new game while they are in this one!

Don't let it go too long. After some time (I think it's 4h) the game will be abandoned, with no elo change and no penalties for anyone, as if the game had never taken place.

Thanks for letting me know, I was not aware of the game getting auto-abandoned. I have kicked them. It is such poor sportsmanship.

wortsenawl wrote: ↑13 June 2026, 15:54 Thanks for letting me know, I was not aware of the game getting auto-abandoned. I have kicked them. It is such poor sportsmanship.

I think you are too fast with your conclusions. Since your opponent loses all his other Azul games in a regular fashion they simply might have had serious connection issues (such that they cannot reenter) or they might even see your time running.

Whatever happened they did not play and you kicked them. That is perfectly fine. If you like you can red thumb the player. But you should not assume ill intentions ("poor sportmanship") as long you do not have proof of it (e.g. the opponent telling you in chat that they are stalling on purpose).

They never went offline. The time between them taking a turn and me taking my last turn was virtually nothing. So, in this case I am most definitely assuming that it was deliberate. Also, they win most of their other games.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.

wortsenawl wrote: ↑13 June 2026, 17:56 They never went offline. The time between them taking a turn and me taking my last turn was virtually nothing. So, in this case I am most definitely assuming that it was deliberate. Also, they win most of their other games.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.

Seriously?

Why would a 600 Elo player take a minus 10 Elo penalty for no reason?
You do realize if something unexpected takes a player away from a real-time game, they will show as "online" even if the person is no longer anywhere near the computer? All this means is the person left the browser window open. I have a BGA window open 24/7. Does this mean I never sleep and am sitting at my computer 24/7?

There is nothing to indicate this player was doing anything els on BGA or the internet. No other games in progress. You're jumping to conclusions here. If something unexpectedly caused the person to physically abandon the game, that same emergency would have likely made closing the browser window a rather low priority. Especially since closing the browser would take the exact same effort as making the final turn and ending the game without penalty.

I've seen my own indicator show "offline" in a game I was playing. I've seen people who appear "offline" making moves. I do not take the online/offline status as anything more than a guess.

wortsenawl wrote: ↑13 June 2026, 17:56 They never went offline. The time between them taking a turn and me taking my last turn was virtually nothing. So, in this case I am most definitely assuming that it was deliberate. Also, they win most of their other games.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is probably a duck.

They lose 25% of their games. They have lost approx. 1300 times. I just looked at their last approx. 100 games and did not see a single quitted game except yours. As others have explained there are multiple reasons why they did not play their last move.

For me it sounds like "If an animal roars like a lion but you have your eyes closed and want to believe you have heard a quack then nobody will be able to convince you that it was probably not a duck."

Jellby wrote: ↑13 June 2026, 20:05 I've seen my own indicator show "offline" in a game I was playing. I've seen people who appear "offline" making moves. I do not take the online/offline status as anything more than a guess.

Fair enough.

Maybe he thought it was already finished and switch to the next tab PH, seeing comfort. Oh wait, it was already over 20 minutes. Then that is not possible. I dont believe anybody could watch that over 20 minutes. Then just feel free to kick him.