Board Game Arena

Congratulations to all participants and winners from Season 26!
 
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!
 
Season 27 is NOW Launched
The new Arena is now open for its new season. And there is more:
You can get your ticket to the Ark Nova World Championship by taking part in Season 27. The best players from the Eastern and the the Western regions will be will be presented with a flight ticket to Berlin as well as free hotel accommodation during the main event in summer 2027. More information here!
 
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!

DrClick wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 17:00 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.
 
You can find all changes to the Arena Game Formats here!

Neither of these links go to the correct place, as it looks like it's just been copy pasted from previous posts. Can you please correct these, since that page is massive and being able to find the start of the correct post is something we shouldn't need to do. I'll add my vote to returning to the previous method of just making the first post in this news article as the location to find all the changes.

Thanks

do not like 300 chip game takes to long and to many all in players gives them advantage go back to 100 chip poker

You did change the rules in Hand and Foot to disallow a meld of wilds

CSQuigley wrote: ↑13 October 2026, 23:30 You did change the rules in Hand and Foot to disallow a meld of wilds

"Arena rules" and "format of games in Arena" aren't the same thing. It took me several seasons to figure that out.

Poker Texas Hold'em format change was not implemented correctly: it shows now "Number of hands: 10 hands" which is neither in the change log, nor in the guru decision, nor was that the setting last arena season. Should be reverted to "Winner takes all"

Not working at all.

Unfortunately, it appears that Arena Mode is currently offline.

Yes, nothing is playable

So this has been an ongoing problem and I think next season something should be done about it. When people are blocking others it shouldnt apply to tables in the arena. Ive seen and heard people blocking others and getting others to then bloack the same person so that they dont get skipped but the person they are blocking does. They also do this when they cant beat someone. By blocking them they bypass them sitting at a table and have a friend join and then they get skipped. If youa re playing in the arena you should have to play everyone that plays. Not pick and choose who you can beat. That defeats the purpoe of the arena. Making red thumbs not apply to arena should apply.This should only apply to arena though and not regular tables. The arena is meant to be best in the world or whatever not blcok who you cant beat beat, beat the others and be number 1 even though you didnt play everyone you should have played!If the problem with heckling and rudeness is still an issue when they are reported for it disable theeir chats. You already do these things they should apply to the arena that way instead. This is a way peope are kingmaking and its not fair tho the other. I know of 2 people who have done this and won the arena since season 20. Not naming names or games