Board Game Arena

Congratulations to all participants and winners from Season 25!
 
What exactly is "the Arena?”
The Arena is the competitive mode on BGA. If you master a game and want to play it competitively, this is THE mode to use, so you can challenge the best players and get the most experience points.
 
The Arena is organized in seasons of 3 months each. Achievements are awarded to the best players at the end of each season.
 
To play in the Arena: select "Play" and then choose "Arena" instead of "Simple game."
Read more about Arena mode
 
Arena format and Gurus
In the previous seasons the gurus chose the game formats for the Arena: player number, options used, ...
 
We are very happy to see that this way of doing things contributed to making the Arena more popular: thank you to all gurus for their smart suggestions and their votes!
 
Rules updates
No Arena rules are changing this season. It does not mean we are 100% satisfied with how the Arena is running, but you seem to appreciate the current rules, so we want to keep them as they are for now. Find out more here.
 
Season 26 is NOW Launched
The new Arena is now open for its new season.
 
Some Explanation About: Relegations
At the end of each season, after winners have been awarded, you are relegated.
League relegation is determined by the number of Arena leagues available for each game:
·       For games with 6 leagues: Elite players are demoted to Gold, Diamond players to Silver, and everyone else to Bronze.
·       For games with 5 or 4 leagues: Elite players are demoted to Silver, and everyone else to Bronze.
·       For games with 3 or 2 leagues: Everyone is demoted to Bronze.
 
Note that some games might not follow these relegation rules, as we might have decided to adjust the number of leagues in between seasons.
 
It's up to you to find the way to the elite!
May the odds be ever in your favor!
You can find all changes to the Arena Game Formats here!

miklomike wrote: ↑13 January 2026, 18:14

miklomike wrote: ↑07 October 2025, 17:17

miklomike wrote: ↑08 July 2025, 17:04
Season 18 and 19 have still not awarded the top trophy for Goblin Hood. Please award these.

https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=144708

This continues to go un-awarded. Numerous posts, relevant bug reports, why has this not been corrected yet?

Why hasn't this been fixed, other games have flagged when trophies were not awarded and you adjusted. Please correct this.

Is there a reason this still isn't awarded?

For anyone interested haha. They finally reached out, but said they won't award it. They said there were probably not enough players, even though their FAQ clearly stated minimum requirements only for top 20 and top 10. They also assumed another rule not stated in the top trophy FAQ section. Finally they suggested I open a report to suggest the FAQ be made more clear...

When asked if they can confirm these rules and if so, to update the FAQ, they never responded.

NO ONE APPRECIATES WHAT CATAN IS. U have been asked for 2 SEASONS to turn off friendly robber for multiple reasons. 1 NO ONE TRADES, 2 people will delay getting to 4+ points for as long as possible, 3- IT ENCOURAGES TEAMING, 4 It punishes people who actually position good & can do things like longest road with 1/2 extra settlements make total of 6/7 points. 4- 3 player rank isn't the same as for tournaments. Also, people have been asking for the expansion because it fixes some issues like u can use a knight to STOP a player from expanding where u want to go or denying the longest road. I've had MANY 3-player games I feel as I was teamed on for putting a settlement early &/or a city. Also, were a player or both did placement to deny an area to me or to rush settlement, so I am perma stuck in that 1 area. If u WON'T add the expansion, at least turn OFF friendly robber & easy start. Also, do a swap between 3/4 players so BOTH sides are happy. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!

miklomike wrote: ↑15 July 2026, 17:17

miklomike wrote: ↑13 January 2026, 18:14

miklomike wrote: ↑07 October 2025, 17:17

Why hasn't this been fixed, other games have flagged when trophies were not awarded and you adjusted. Please correct this.

Is there a reason this still isn't awarded?

For anyone interested haha. They finally reached out, but said they won't award it. They said there were probably not enough players, even though their FAQ clearly stated minimum requirements only for top 20 and top 10. They also assumed another rule not stated in the top trophy FAQ section. Finally they suggested I open a report to suggest the FAQ be made more clear...

When asked if they can confirm these rules and if so, to update the FAQ, they never responded.

I honestly opened the comments section to the Arena news, to see “hey what about that person who’s been asking for the trophy to be awarded for many seasons…” Ugh I’m sorry they aren’t awarding it even though the FAQ seemed clear I’m glad you got at least part of an answer tho!

Satori Sanada wrote: ↑15 July 2026, 19:28 NO ONE APPRECIATES WHAT CATAN IS. U have been asked for 2 SEASONS to turn off friendly robber for multiple reasons. 1 NO ONE TRADES, 2 people will delay getting to 4+ points for as long as possible, 3- IT ENCOURAGES TEAMING, 4 It punishes people who actually position good & can do things like longest road with 1/2 extra settlements make total of 6/7 points. 4- 3 player rank isn't the same as for tournaments. Also, people have been asking for the expansion because it fixes some issues like u can use a knight to STOP a player from expanding where u want to go or denying the longest road. I've had MANY 3-player games I feel as I was teamed on for putting a settlement early &/or a city. Also, were a player or both did placement to deny an area to me or to rush settlement, so I am perma stuck in that 1 area. If u WON'T add the expansion, at least turn OFF friendly robber & easy start. Also, do a swap between 3/4 players so BOTH sides are happy. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!!

The so-called Catan "gurus" don't have a clue how the game works on a competitive level. It's been stuck at 3p for EVERY season since the game went live 4 years ago. Every official IRL tournament uses 4p games because it is better balanced and requires more skill to win. Also Friendly Robber is not used because, well, that's for new players and family games. Easy Start is sometimes used, but very rarely. Number chits are either "curated" with pre-balanced boards, or the spiral setup is used ("variable" on BGA, NOT "variable with random numbers"). I have complained every season in the forum threads for improvements but as I've never been a guru, I can't vote for change. Yes, Cities and Knights would be a dream, but it would be nice just to have 4p, even for one season. As it stands, for 4 years straight, the Arena setup has been a joke. I've boycotted it, along with many serious players.

flammifera wrote: ↑16 July 2026, 00:52
I honestly opened the comments section to the Arena news, to see “hey what about that person who’s been asking for the trophy to be awarded for many seasons…” Ugh I’m sorry they aren’t awarding it even though the FAQ seemed clear I’m glad you got at least part of an answer tho!

Haha, thanks! I knew there were a few following my journey. Always like when others update for anyone following along, or even in the future for reference. At least someone finally reached out instead of just ignoring it for the last 7 seasons.

This seasons change for Memoir’44:

Memoir '44:
Campaign: "[CB1] [4] Small Campaign Early Falaise" (prev: "[CB1] [1] Small Campaign Flanking Caen")

Last season the campaign did not work for Arena and this season it still doesn’t. So I do not know if the change was implemented or not but it still does not work.

Could somebody please revert it to the season 23 or 24 setting.

Vote for the bug here: https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=232182

Rule Changes don't include Can't Stop changing from 3 columns for victory to 5 columns for victory.

mischlep wrote: ↑16 July 2026, 12:11 Rule Changes don't include Can't Stop changing from 3 columns for victory to 5 columns for victory.

When they say "rule changes" they mean to Arena mode as a whole. Each individual game has its own Arena setup that can and do change, but here they're referring to things like "the k-factor for AES is still gonna be 40" or "you have to be Elo 100+ to join Arena" or "you can still block players in Arena with red thumbs" etc. None of that is changing.

There is a thread that reports all the config changes for each game; you can find that here: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45252