Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Jan 22, 2023, 3:27 PM
I think that for Pente variants and some of the less played games (gomoku, Go) here that there shouldn't be a restriction to established players (over 20 games) participating. For examp!e, Zoeyk wouldn't currently qualify for TB Boat Pente, Karlw wouldn't currently qualify for TB Poof, owen_ wouldn't currently qualify for TB gomoku and I wouldn't currently qualify for TB D Pente. Karl and I have both won crowns in tournaments which we wouldn't qualify for and I think that those who are familiar with Zoeyk and owen_ would agree that Boat and gomoku tournaments which they couldn't participate in (should they choose) would be lacking without their participation. Just my two cents.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Jan 31, 2023, 11:18 PM
Well, actually I wasn't going to play the gomoku tournament because time control of 2 days per move is quite risky. But now I feel obliged to participate =)
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Feb 15, 2023, 2:14 PM
I see that creating the SE tournament table was ignoring non-established ratings so I had a starting number 4 (the last). On one hand, it's a reasonable thing because who knows how strong is this noob; on the other hand, it leads to the fact I'm playing the strongest player in the tournament. If I win, my opp (rated top-1) will not be able to get the 2nd place.
If we speak about top-1 only, it doesn't matter. But if no, than it seems to be a good idea to upgrade the process of start numbers generating.
First approach is to use provisional ratings with the same weight as established. It should disturb final results less.
Second approach may be in forcing some seeded (like top 1/4 of participants) to avoid provisional dark horses in first round or two. Discussible.
Sorry for my poor English =) Hope it's not that hard to get my ideas.
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Feb 15, 2023, 4:11 PM
Yes, that's a bit of a quirk in the seeding system. Traditionally in tournaments here for a long time, there's only been an acknowledgement with a crown for the first place finisher. However, it would be nice at some point to have provisional ratings count in seeding and acknowledge at least the second and third place finishers in some manner, at least in the larger tournaments.
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Mar 5, 2025, 3:51 PM
And by the way... what is the main reason for this restriction? I believe it's smth like "to avoid players who are new to the site and may abandon games or cause any other troubles".
If that's the case than maybe it's a wise idea to change the limitation from "played 20 TB sets of this particular game" to "played 20 TB sets of any game on the site".
Because, you know, it's a long way to play 20 TB games in swap2 pente for example. But the difference between swap2 pente and usual pente is quite slim and ends after the 6th move being made (6 stones are on the board).
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Mar 6, 2025, 12:46 AM
the 1st 20 games use a different formula to calculate rating, it varies highly snd is very volatile. So a very good player might my rated low and vice versa. This is to let them sign up and get a fairly confident idea of their rating. It still can be gamed, but at least it helps a bit.
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Mar 6, 2025, 8:47 PM
Something like (avg rating of opps) + 400*(points got - games played / 2)? A typical Elo approach.
It doesn't matter much. Any rating system works in the same way: the more games between different opponents, the better. One can try to cheat on system when he can choose his opponents but not when playing in the tournament.
More, if a strong player meets strong opps and gets good rating, it's good. If a weak player meets strong opps, loses and gets low rating, it's good since it's obvious. If a weak player meets weak opps, he scores around 50% and it's good. And so on.
If a weak player takes some points from a low-rated player and then plays a top-rated player thus increasing his average opp's rating, it doesn't matter, is he playing in a tournament or in a free game or KotH, it may happen in any way. And, frankly, Elo system is quite robust for such cases.
Re: Early 2023 tournaments restriction to established players?
Posted:
Mar 7, 2025, 10:09 AM
One thought just concerning me. Since I've tried to play Pente on the site finally, I'd like to test my skill in the Pente tournament.
So I need 20 sets of Pente to check in. The fastest way to achieve it is to accept 20 invitations and surrender all that games (because it will take too long to play them all, I spend quite a plenty of time on each single game).
It will bring me into Amateurs with a rating which is definitely lower than my true playing strength. Is it a good thing or a bad thing?
IMO, any tournament restrictions, tournament rules and so on must be designed to encourage benevolent behavior, not malevolent. That's the idea.
