That won't change same cheating methods which are already in use.
As long as every higher positioned players match isn't watched by moderators, or knock-system used, tournaments will be carnivals of cheating.

Could you please explain what kind of cheating are you talking about?

1. Stalling. In last game, opponent is stalling game just to prevent you win points before tournament ends.
2. Losing by intention. In last tournament, tournament winner won his last game vs opponent who was just doing his best to lose. I called mod there, obviously too late.

In tournament room you will see several players which are refusing every challenge - until last 5-10 minutes of tournament. Then they will play (to stall you, or to help some his friend, whatever is needed).

It's just a game, but if you wait to play some tournament in the middle of the night and then you see such things, it's really annoying. Played 4 tournaments so far, saw same things all over again.

Please check the other forums, for example

http://forum.flyordie.com/thread.jsp?forum=4&thread=58413

A completely new tournament format has been introduced in some of the games recently, which will be soon available in backgammon tournaments as well.

1. this will not possible, as you will have 20 minutes after the "end" to finish any ongoing games.

2. surely this is not impossible in any tournaments, as any one can lose intentionally any time, however, pairings will be done by the system, so it is not very probable that anyone will play his/her "friends" in last round.

You will need to beat high rated players if you want to win, especially towards the end.

Great changes, thank you!
Just do not get why the finish time of the tournament games that are in progress can not enforce. Example: F1 - Formula 1, the classification for poly position, when the timer expires, the last lap already started before the termination is valid, even ending after the workout.

In today's system tournament, we are going to use the new tournament format introduced recently:
------------------------
- Opponents will be assigned by the server.
- Everyone without active dnd/brb signs will be assigned an opponent, so if you don't want to participate you must activate one of these signs!!
- After a match finishes and you return to the lobby, you will have 10 seconds to indicate you need a break (activate dnd/brb sign). Else, you will be given a new opponent when available. Usually, it will take 10-60 seconds to get into a new match if appropriate opponents are available.
- You won't play the same opponent again until one of you have played another one.
- When the tournament is over the server will wait up to 20 minutes for unfinished matches to be finished.

That is great improvement!

Thank you for listening public voice. :)

I forgot just one thing...

I think we all can agree that tournament room is one-purpose-room-only. So, if you are there, you have to play, or you have to leave. I do understand that dnd/brb could be necessary in some situations (hey, I need to make some coffe as well :) ), but if you can limit them on 5 minutes - that would be more then enough. After spending those 5 minutes on any (or both), using dnd and brb should be blocked. Why? Because, still, refusing to play (by own blockade) someone who maybe needs just one more victory to win the tournament - is unfair behavior.

I'm not sure is that possible to do, but please consider it.
Thx.

CONGRATULATIONS, PERFECT.

Agree with Caneta. After first tournament with new format, even I was terrible :D - this is great, great improvement.

Just one question - system is picking up similar opponents (by points), right? Well, I was in the room almost a full minute with player who had same points (zero :D ) - then server gave him match vs 16 pts player and I was still waiting new opponent.
I thought that maybe it's about number of already played matches as higher priority. Is that so?

The system is more likely to give you an equal/similar rated opponent if available, but sometimes it might choose higher/lower rated ones, in order to be less predictable (and less abusable).

So, one more luck factor. Why not! :)

I'm not sure if this is possible, but I thought I'd make this recommendation: While you're playing in the Tournament Room and your temporary tournament ranking rises and drops, it shouldn't affect your actual ranking. The luck factor in this game is significant, and an opponent who is rated 1200 should not always be able to beat someone whose rating is 0. In the last few tournaments I've made pretty decent finishes, but when I go back into the normal room it seems like I'm down at least 100 points because you don't gain anything from beating the majority of the opponents there, while each loss you incur will make a large impact.

So let's say a player enters a tournament with 500 points. My suggestion states that he should leave with 500 points no matter how well he did in the tournament. I can see why this suggestion could be unnecessary in a game like chess where a high rated player should always be able to crush a novice, but its a bit different in backgammon where luck plays such a huge role.

I think that more high rated players will join the tournament if this is put into place, because it seems like a lot of them don't join due to the hole that they will find themselves in afterwards with regards to their ranking (even after doing well).