Cheating players known?
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Anton Hodgetts 🇬🇧 (scaredycat)
Playing slow is not an indicator of cheating, just trying to be thoughtful. If they then happen to play well then clearly it helped them play more accurately. I think the incidence of cheating on hub is extremely low since they have nothing to gain, not even a rating. Next time you play someone with very low PR you think might be cheating treat it like a challenge, backgammon is fun regardless of the skill level of the opponent, and with the dice anyone can win.
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Anton Hodgetts 🇬🇧 (scaredycat) Thanks for your response, highly appreciated. Cheers Rudolf
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Again I had to play a World Champ!!!! Where is the block button in the ladder?
It's really no fun to face such cheating guys. I don't pay for the membership for such things.
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Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf) hmm I really doubt there would be someone putting the effort to manually cheat where there is no cash gain ! I don't play in Hub Ladders myself so I am not sure how the block works there. But for the Play Now option, is below the chat (see screenshot).
Just by curiosity, I checked your profile and some of the players you played in ladder. I see you played vs Connor Dickinson, well he is a certified Master so you should expect top PR's from him. Recently I see you played vs Aniel where he played a 3.2 PR, while he is not a master, he is a pretty decently good player with his average PR below 8, and in a 7 point match it certainly happens from time to time to catch some easy rolls and obtain a PR like that; also I know him from some cash tournaments where we played - he got some bad PR's as well; and he also does not play slowly at all.
My guess is that you might be well in the wrong with your suspicions, especially for Hub Ladders games where there is no cash incentive !
Nobody forces you to pay the membership. We do that (I at least) because we love this platform and consider it best and most fair, especially in regards to dice rolls which are verifiable. And also because Alfie hear our feedback and implemented so much of our suggestions along the years.
Honestly I think if this is is not yet perfect, is at least over 95% close to it, and already beats by far any other backgammon platform .. but depends what you are looking for - because if you are just looking for a place to find a quick 7p match, maybe you should go to Galaxy because here are not yet so many players right now .. but with the time passing will surely grow and probably at some point will become very popular with lots of players online at any hour because a great platform with great support can only grow.
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Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer]
Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf) the ladder has players at all levels and is a way to play some of the same players repeatedly (less anonymous than many other platforms). You can see a player's average PR in the table and therefore choose whether to play or not, but because of the nature of the ladder you cannot permanently block a player.
As Denis-George Constantin (playhunter) pointed out, I doubt very much there are any players cheating on the ladder. They are short 7 point matches and so it's quite easy to get to the top if you get lucky for a few games. It's not to be taken too seriously!
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter) Hi, thanks for the response what I appreciate much.
That Connor Dickinson (you said the name, not me) is a certified master I didn't know (how could I?) so I was wrong to think about cheating.
But I'm shure that people are cheating at backgammon and they do it because of a kind of satisfaction, no money in play needed.
I'm playing BG since some decades on various occations and locations so my experience about cheating is founded. The modern technics makes it easier now to have a background tutor beside you.
Anyway, if we've so many "World Class" players on this hub so it's nice and it's an honor to play against them.
Cheers Rudolf
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Alfie Kirkpatrick [Developer] Got it, thanks. Cheers Rudolf
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter) Hi, thanks for the link to the BMAB website. Wouldn't it be a good idea to have this link here on the hub website? Cheers Rudolf
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Denis-George Constantin (playhunter)
That is a red flag for me too ! If is for fun, you can block that player so he can not invite you for future matches. If it is for tournaments with cash prizes, I guess is up to Tournament Director to check if the player is legit or not.
To verify if someone is legit, he must play with webcam and share his screen. And he should play at least 50 experience points (that is 7 matches to 7 points, or 4 matches to 13 points or 2 matches to 25 points). If after that he will have his median PR no higher than 2 points than his average, probably he is legit.
If a player regularly plays 3-4 and when I check him he will play at 7-8, that's clear enough for me. On the other hand, if he regularly plays 3-4 and when I check him he plays 6-7, I'd offer him the chance to play another 50 exp to improve his average PR. If he still can't reduce it to below 2 points difference, then is still clear for me.
In case he won something, if when checked he plays 4 points worse than his average, I won't pay him his prize, but distribute it equally among winners. Same if he refuses to be video checked. If he plays between 2-4 points worse than his average but refuses to continue with the video checking to improve his average PR, then I'd pay his prize but won't let him play again in my tournaments. If when checked he plays exactly 2 points worse than his average (but not worse than that), I'd put it on variance, pay him and let him continue in my tournaments.
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Rudolf Aigner 🇹🇠(lungrudolf)
Denis-George Constantin (playhunter) Thanks, very interesting informations. Cheers Rudolf