Is ladder stalling against the rules? Based on his most recent games where he was clearly losing, he was taking much longer to take turns and didn't consider surrendering.

offffffff XD this is so bad!!! ajajaj wtf congratz Unicum you deserve it :d why he dont sent a private message? its better for him ajaj

This makes a joke of all ladders. I worked hard to get my RTL trophy and now I can never look at it the same way.

This incident once again proves the superiority of the RTL, the only ladder where you may become #1 on a boot but you can't stall your way to the trophy

This shows how fast Unicum has been playing this game over the last 50 turns.

Average: 20 hours

16 minutes
7 minutes
0 minutes
2 minutes
2 minutes
1 minute
1 minute
1 minute
1 minute
2 minutes
0 minutes
2 days 20 hours
2 days 15 hours
2 days 14 hours
2 days 17 hours
2 days 21 hours

... OOF

Seems clear Edge should surrender, or boot. He needs to be less selfish and play like Merfi.

Also, FWIW, I think Merfi deserves as much shit as Unicum for enabling him.

Edited 1/14/2020 21:31:37

Merfi was last seen 3 days 22 hours and has booted from other games as well - I don't think he booted on purpose to help Unicum.

Is ladder stalling against the rules?

No. We all wish it was, but it's not really feasible to implement, enforce or even define. To stop stalling we need a better solution then "don't do that".

It really comes down to a technical discussion about the whole organisation of the ladder.
{Change rating rules, change requirements for being ranked, change trophy rules, change boot time. Hell, maybe use a mod to force auto-surrender when game is 100% lost}

Also, FWIW, I think Merfi deserves as much shit as Unicum for enabling him.

Looks like a normal boot to me. I see nothing else then a boot from Merfi, not the surrender I would expect for helping. As of now:
Last seen 3 days 23 hours ago
Booted 1484 times (9% of their last 100)

Edited 1/14/2020 22:25:17

Honestly this is really easy to fix.
You don't get ranked until your first 20 games allocated to you are completed. So doesn't matter if you stall, you can't get that rank until all those games are complete.

Congrats Unicum! But next time..., try to win a different way!

btw, there are no rules against stalling at all

how did he go up 110 ranks in the last week? Man, stalling rly does up your ranks! :D

Cowboy I agree your solution would be multitudes better, but I don't think it would make it impossible to game the ladder. As an example deliberately lose first few games so that progression is slow. Win the rest of your first 20. Start choosing games to finish and games to stall. Wait for those first few losses to expire while you replace them with high quality wins.

Honestly this is really easy to fix.
You don't get ranked until your first 20 games allocated to you are completed. So doesn't matter if you stall, you can't get that rank until all those games are complete.

And if someone you got a game against goes on vacation, you are just stuck unranked? That is not great.

You could make adjustments of course, but the idea still has merit.

I think asking someone to surrender is much better than stalling so why is everyone focused on the stalling.

Stalling in itself is a show of weakness for that player, as he's not skilled enough to get the trophy in an honest and a well deserved way. Asking to surrend just strengthens that weakness, as that player showed additionally, that he isn't skilled enough to even prevent 5 losses within his first 20 games, which does feature a lot of "easy" opponents.

Edited 1/15/2020 05:26:38

If you have to finish your first 20 allocated games, at some point someone's opponent will start stalling to prevent them from completing their 20th game and getting ranked.

I never understood why fizzer uses Bayes elo instead of standard elo. Even if you ignore the potential for Bayes to be abused, poor skill assessment over time, etc..., from a business standpoint, why would you use a system that encourages short runs instead of dedicated commitment by players that keeps them engaged for longer periods of time (assuming they are aiming for a trophy)? Even if they aren't aiming for a trophy, I figure most ladder players don't even know how the rating system works, and it could be very discouraging (and confusing) to see their ratings stagnate at +6-7 points/win and -15 points/loss due to the system even though they may have improved beyond what their rating suggests.

That's why the team ladders are so poor, no incentive to stay on cause 1 loss is near disastrous unless you win a ridiculous amount of games.

That's why the team ladders are so poor, no incentive to stay on cause 1 loss is near disastrous unless you win a ridiculous amount of games.

That's why the team ladders are so poor, no incentive to stay on cause 1 loss is near disastrous unless you win a ridiculous amount of games.