Board Game Arena

Hello, I've been using bga for around half a year now and mainly play ticket to ride. Lately, I've been interested in finding out the maximum elo I could achieve by playing ticket to ride against 3 or more players as on my main account I only ever play 2 players. Would it be possible to then have 2 accounts, where I'm pushing my elo in 2 player games on my primary account and on 3-5 player games with a secondary account, of course never having these 2 accounts play with each other. Because I get it is strictly prohibited to use 2 accounts to team up together, but I wouldn't see a problem in using 2 accounts completely separate from one another achieving higher rankings but in different settings. Thanks everyone for feedback!

Nokkokokko wrote: ↑11 September 2026, 22:36 Hello, I've been using bga for around half a year now and mainly play ticket to ride. Lately, I've been interested in finding out the maximum elo I could achieve by playing ticket to ride against 3 or more players as on my main account I only ever play 2 players. Would it be possible to then have 2 accounts, where I'm pushing my elo in 2 player games on my primary account and on 3-5 player games with a secondary account, of course never having these 2 accounts play with each other. Because I get it is strictly prohibited to use 2 accounts to team up together, but I wouldn't see a problem in using 2 accounts completely separate from one another achieving higher rankings but in different settings. Thanks everyone for feedback!

I don't think it's allowed to have two separate accounts playing rated gamed, even if not used to play both accounts at the same table. Especially not if the reason is "I want to see what Elo I can reach with this new account ...."

I think I recall reading that a secondary account can only be used for friendly mode and testing stuff out.

Nokkokokko wrote: ↑11 September 2026, 22:36 Hello, I've been using bga for around half a year now and mainly play ticket to ride. Lately, I've been interested in finding out the maximum elo I could achieve by playing ticket to ride against 3 or more players as on my main account I only ever play 2 players. Would it be possible to then have 2 accounts, where I'm pushing my elo in 2 player games on my primary account and on 3-5 player games with a secondary account, of course never having these 2 accounts play with each other. Because I get it is strictly prohibited to use 2 accounts to team up together, but I wouldn't see a problem in using 2 accounts completely separate from one another achieving higher rankings but in different settings. Thanks everyone for feedback!

A while ago, a BGA admin (the former Community Manager I think) wrote this:

xate wrote: ↑05 June 2024, 16:17 To be perfectly clear:

Using more than one account to play in ranked games (Arena or normal games for ELO) is prohibited in our Terms of Use.

I thought this wasn't "perfectly clear," and left too much gray area so I asked this:

Meeplelowda wrote: ↑06 June 2024, 10:13 I'm sorry, but I think this needs further clarification. Is it only using more than one account to play against each other in ranked games prohibited, or is using more than one account in ranked game prohibited period, even if they don't play against each other. There are some people who continue to believe that it is OK as long as you don't play them against each other to ELO boost.

To this xate responded in what I thought were pretty black and white terms:

xate wrote: ↑06 June 2024, 10:46 1 player - 1 account.

Playing from multiple accounts for ranking, even if not against themselves, is unfair and prohibited.

A secondary account that ONLY plays in Friendly Mode is permitted (so that players may use these to create tutorials, etc).

1 player. 1 account. You cannot use more than one account in any non-friendly mode. Period.

Suppose you are the top elo player. You play with 2 accounts and since you're the best, you'll be top 1st and 2nd. Do you think that's fair?

Personally, I don’t want two competitive players to actually be the same person behind the screen. If you are gonna have a second account then maybe use it to try out stuff, but don’t be competitive with it.

Jellby wrote: ↑12 September 2026, 11:18 Suppose you are the top elo player. You play with 2 accounts and since you're the best, you'll be top 1st and 2nd. Do you think that's fair?

In this scenario? I think it's more fair to award them two first places instead. Ratings-wise it doesn't make sense for BGA to have those grouped as one, though I can see how it happened when looking at reasons unrelated to the actual game itself.

Do you mean if one account plays 2-player and the other 3-5-players? There may be an argument for having two separate rankings, but two accounts for the same player in the same ranking? When everyone else uses one?

Jellby wrote: ↑13 September 2026, 07:34 Do you mean if one account plays 2-player and the other 3-5-players? There may be an argument for having two separate rankings, but two accounts for the same player in the same ranking? When everyone else uses one?

I think there should be two separate rankings, yes. I think that there only being one ranking makes it awkward for anyone trying to play both formats, as their rating is pulled back and forth between the different values they could have for different formats, causing them to be consistently overrated and underrated as they play different games.

As for the two accounts vs one, the question you asked was about fairness, so my answer is going to be I'm not feeling the unfairness on this one.

Ceaseless wrote: ↑13 September 2026, 18:35

Jellby wrote: ↑13 September 2026, 07:34 Do you mean if one account plays 2-player and the other 3-5-players? There may be an argument for having two separate rankings, but two accounts for the same player in the same ranking? When everyone else uses one?

I think there should be two separate rankings, yes. I think that there only being one ranking makes it awkward for anyone trying to play both formats, as their rating is pulled back and forth between the different values they could have for different formats, causing them to be consistently overrated and underrated as they play different games.

This is an interesting point, because for some games, the high number of variants means there are completely different versions of the game.

Consider Pente, a simple Stone-placing game (Similar to the more famous "Go-Moku", and played on the same board, also the same board as the very famous game "Go".)

Standard Pente is very basic. Alternate placing two stones, trying to make 5 in a row or make 5 captures (a capture consisting of bracketing exactly two opponent stones in a straight line).

But then there are 6 or 7 different variants, which, when combined, are a completely different game.

I almost exclusively play the "capture 3" variant, which means a pair OR a 3-in-a-row can be captured in the standard manner of bracketing around the opponent stones. But this variant (also known as "Keryo Pente" means that when an opponent threatens to capture a pair, the pair cannot be defended by simply extending the pair to a 3. In that case, instead of just two stones being captures, all 3 would be captured.

And that's just one of many variants that dramatically change the game.

But, everyone is ranked together under the broad umbrella of "Pente."

Ceaseless wrote: ↑13 September 2026, 18:35 I think there should be two separate rankings, yes. I think that there only being one ranking makes it awkward for anyone trying to play both formats, as their rating is pulled back and forth between the different values they could have for different formats, causing them to be consistently overrated and underrated as they play different games.

If you go like that then we should also have separate rankings for each variant of the game (if it has variants). This would rapidly lead to a lot of different rankings since you'd need to have one for each possible combination.

I have noticed that my Elo is sort of affected by the types of games I've played lately, but I don't see it as an issue, since if you're one of the best players of a game then you should get to the top regardless. Could be different for games where different setups play out largely differently though.

As a side note, Arena essentially solves this issue since it fixes the player count and variant used, so you can see the exact ranking for this particular setup. And looking at how high the Arena scores go during that season gives you an idea of how luck based the particular setup is (although there are other factors that can influence how high the scores go).

(Also note that turn based and real time are also two notably different ways to play a game, so if we want to be really exhaustive we'd also have to include those in all the possible rankings)

Ceaseless wrote: ↑13 September 2026, 18:35 As for the two accounts vs one, the question you asked was about fairness, so my answer is going to be I'm not feeling the unfairness on this one.

Well it's definitely unfair if everyone is competing for the same ranking with single accounts and someone decides to bypass that. It would not be unfair if your suggestion of separate rankings existed, but it does not.