Any chance TT Tourneys can be less susceptible to cheating?

[No2631]

So for a few weeks now, I've noticed the same names leading the Triple Triad tournaments, always with the maximum amount of games won, and always with ridiculously high scores. I don't doubt people are cheating, because you don't just win 45 games on roulette.

Are there any plans to make the tournament less abusive and to open up victory for players who don't cheat?

[Duuude007]

Maybe if SE were paying closer attention to the cheater mechanics, they would take appropriate action.

To that end... someone did a writeup on what the cheaters do to consistently place: source

A cheater's guide to Triple Triad Tournaments
What's up guys. So there's this dude on Leviathan that has come in first place in the Triple Triad tournament every single week since the tournaments have first started. It's extremely annoying, so I'm not only going to show you how he does it, I'm also going to give everyone a run down on how the point system works and what most people do to get into the top ten every week. Please keep in mind that although I am not condoning cheating, it is currently the only way to get into the top tiered rank position because of the number of people that do cheat, myself included.

The Triple Triad tournament system is broken and Yoshi P will be addressing the problem eventually, but not until months after Heavensward comes out. Generally people use alts or pay money to play against others that are willing to throw games. It is not directly against the TOS (GM confirmed) and because of this, cheating is pretty rampant. So if you want to win, it's what you have to do.

How the points work

Everyone starts off being worth 100 points. If you beat that person, their point worth will slowly drop 1-2 points at a time, stabilizing somewhere around 89-90 if all you do is play one another and he consistently loses. This, in theory encourages you to play other players.

If another player reaches the top 20 board however, their point value begins to dramatically increase, starting at 101 points for 20th position, and ending at around 130 for defeating someone in 1st.

Additionally, and here's the kicker, you get bonus points playing a real person, and even more points if that person has a stronger deck than you, somewhere around ten points per tier. For example, if I have a 1-star deck and go up against a 3-star pro with a 5-star hero card, given that he is undefeated and not in the top twenty position, I will receive around 130-135 tournament points, which is a lot more than average.

How People Are Cheating

There are 3 basic methods.
Paying people to lose -If you have money, you can offer 100k per match for fc members, friends, and total strangers to lose to you. If that person hasn't lost or played a match yet, he's worth 100 virgin points. Do this 35-55 times and you will end up somewhere in the top ten. This is inefficient and very time consuming. Not my recommendation for cheating.

Waking up at 4 am on a Tuesday when the tournament starts - At the start of every tournament the board is clear, so as soon as anyone scores, they immediately fly to the top of the board and are worth a stupid amount of points. So you get a 1-star deck, find someone that has a 3-star deck and have them lose all their matches during that initial 4 am window. You will start off winning 145+ points per match, which will slowly decline as you play. Most likely you will be in the top 3 if you time this right, potentially 1st. This, combined with the first method, is what I normally do to win.

EXTREME NO-LIFE SUPER CHEATING - Or you can do this. This guy is the Lance Armstrong of Triple Triad tournaments. And there's me! Hi me!

He has 15 more matches to go, and is getting about 145 points per match. How does he do it? The other highlighted characters below him are his alts. He has two alts play each other on two different accounts, one losing every match and one winning until they each have 10-15 matches to go and the winning alt is in the top ten. He then logs back in with his main, beats the winning alt for a ton of points, and then does this process 3-5 more times. So, if you are insane, get two accounts, level 8-10 alts to 15 and give them 2-star plus decks (should take you about 10 hours+ per alt), and fight the winning alts 10 times each to get the most possible points. And when you are done you should probably kill yourself because I doubt there is very much joy in your life.

Is there any way to fix this? Yoshi P said that changing the tournament system will be a challenge but there are some fairly simple solutions that could be introduced to splint the broken bone.

Tournaments should significantly increase point erosion to remove the incentive for people to play alts consumptively, reduce the point bonus for being on the top 20 board, and abolish extra points for playing against someone with better cards than your own entirely. That wouldn't take more than altering a couple parameters.

So that's how the tournaments work currently. Cheaters win without repercussion, and it's pretty frustrating for everybody else. Things will be changing in the future, but right now it's the wild west. If I were you I'd take advantage of the situation now because it will never be like this again. I hope I've been able to level the playing field for those of you who are interested in doing this and with any luck we will be seeing some new names on the tournament boards soon.

[AsahinaMyLove]

SE Should give lesser points for each time someone(Player A) wins/lose against someone other(Player B)
Or a lockout(You cant play more 5 matches vs same person this tournament) after 5 matches against the same player. (Not NPC's because they dont/cant lose on purpose)

Not funny seeing the same people(cheaters) having crazy high points - while others has 1k and more pts below.
Like this Week: over 5500pts for the 1st placed guy! the 2nd place has 4500pts. <.<

One of my last Tournamentm 4 weeks ago, there even where 2 people with ZERO Wins 45 LOSES and still was 3rd and 4th place!! D: <
And 2 others are on 1st and 2nd place with 45 Wins with a bunch of points!! You could clearly see the dumb cheaters!

[Callinon]

I have a background in card game organized play. I've been running, managing, and officiating tournaments for over a decade at everything from local stores to large conventions.

Under the current system, eliminating cheating is totally impossible. As long as prize is distributed based on hard rankings, cheating in a system like this will be rampant and unstoppable.

So the question isn't "can we eliminate cheating?" because the answer is no. The question should be "can we make the tournament more fair?" Yes we can.

Start by getting rid of this notion of a top 20. In an asynchronous league structure like this, rank is meaningless because win trading can't be prevented. We're already limiting the number of matches each player can play in. That's good. Next we change the system so that wins, not points, matter more. Further we specify that you can't play the same person in the same tournament more than once. Then at the end of the tournament, we give rewards based on the number of wins accumulated. That simple.

Changing the value of a win because of deck strength is useless because win trading. What we COULD do there is set up tiers so that people are only playing decks on their own tier. This creates its own problems, but I think they'd probably be minor. It's worth noting that since I don't know the number of players that actually exist in each deck tier right now, it's hard to know whether this can work or not. Though I think it's worth investigating.

This system will end up awarding more prizes to people because we'll have a larger number of winners overall. But that's ok here because we don't have physical costs involved. Just change up what the prizes are so that people will continue to be interested in tournament play.

[Noshpan]

Because of the cheating in the TT tournaments, I don't even bother actively participating. I just sign up and ignore it until it ends. Then I claim my 1000mgp prize (because it's far more profitable than playing either cactpots).

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Because of the cheating in the TT tournaments, I don't even bother actively participating. I just sign up and ignore it until it ends. Then I claim my 1000mgp prize (because it's far more profitable than playing either cactpots).

Or just play NPCs only and earn 10K or more plus a few cards in the process.

[Noshpan]

Or just play NPCs only and earn 10K or more plus a few cards in the process.

I would if I wasn't busy farming Nexus light.

[mp-please]

They should just remove the ability to duel players and make every tournament NPC like tataru, it would fix all tournament issues

[Hito-Shura]

On Behemoth, the same person has been winning every single tournament since the arrival of TT tournaments... It's a bit ridiculous. I lost all interests after the first 2 weeks because of cheaters.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

I would if I wasn't busy farming Nexus light.

5-10 matches a day isn't that bad now.