Wordfeud League of Honour WLoH

Tournaments start every second week. This list shows when the next season starts in the different leagues. The WLoH clock is in Central European Time, including summertime. These are also the deadlines for registering results in the current season.

When a tournament has started, you should challenge all the players in your group (that is, those who haven't challenged you already). The games are played on a normal board.

When a game is finished, you should register the result under 'Results'. As a rule of thumbs, the winner of the game registers the match, both both players are responsible for registering the result. The table is automatically updated.

The League uses a divisional system. If you play well, you're promoted to a higher level. If you go on a losing streak, you risk being relegated.

If an invitation is not accepted during the 14 days of the season and the game did not start at all, you should not report any results. Our robot (LoBot) automatically fixes it when the season ends. The player who completed the least number of matches will then lose, based on the assumption that that player is the slowest. If the players have completed the same number of matches, the result is set to 0-0, otherwise the one with the most played matches will win. In this case LoBot will award a score of 160-0.

If an invitation is accepted then the game is deemed to have started. If your opponent then resigns, or times out (72 hours) you should enter a score of 150-0, or subtract 50 points from your opponent’s score, whichever gives you the higher spread of points. Different numbers apply for the variety of other games in WLoH, see lower down the page.

If you have a score of 0 points in every game (in the score margin column), you are automatically unregistered. If you lose all your games 0-150 in one season, but still want to play in the next round, the smoothest solution is to register the result 1-151 in any one of the games.

Breach of rules

If a player deliberately lets the game exceed the time limit (14 days) for his own benefit, this is considered cheating. It is impossible to prove such an action to be deliberate, but the tournament organizers may withhold promotion for players who have one or more unfinished games that might spoil their promotion chances if completed. In general, slow play is not considered cheating. There are fast players and there are slow players, and we must all love each other.

Verbal abuse of other players in the forum, or offensive remarks in general, is of course unacceptable and might lead to exclusion. Remember that this is a game meant for entertainment and joy.

We call ourselves a League of Honour because we trust you. We will not hunt you down with bloodhounds to check that you're not cheating. We do, however, have referees who can be contacted at intwlohjudge@yahoo.com (English International League), wlohmoderator@gmail.com (US English), wlohreferee@gmail.com (Spanish), wlohdomare@hotmail.com (Swedish), moderateur.wloh@protonmail.com (French), dommer krøllalfa scrabbleforbundet.no (Norwegian), dkwlohdommer@gmail.com (Danish), gkvernel@online.no (German), wloh.pt@gmail.com (Portuguese), Yatzydommer1@outlook.com (Yatzy), qlohjudge@gmail.com (Qaardz) or ref.wloh@gmail.com (Dutch). If the referee receives repeated reports about suspicious play on your part, you may be sent packing without further ado.

Frequently Asked Questions

Barryburry doesn't respond to my challenge. What should I do?

You can send Barryburry an email, see instruction in the lower part of the Sign up- page. Or you can simply wait until Barryburry challenges you, as you both received the same email at the start of the tournament. If no game is played and you end up have finished more games than Barryburry, the result is automatically set to 160-0 in your favour when the bot goes though the results after 14 days.

The user Barryburry doesn't exist? What should I do?

This is, in effect, the same situation as the one above.

I registered an incorrect result. What should I do?

Re-register and follow the instructions.

I never got round to entering the result, and now the game is removed from the application, at my place and the opponent's. What should I do?

Make a best guess and register the result. Make sure you've got the correct winner and approximately the correct point difference. Show moderation. If you could be promoted (or avoid relegation) due to this “guesstimate”, make sure you that the victory margin you submit is well within the truth.

I won my group. How come I was not promoted?

We do not like to promote players who do not finish their matches. If you won the group, or avoided relegation, because you had an advantage by not finishing your games, the table judge will prefer someone who finished more games. If it is close to deadline and you will win the group, or avoid relegation, by not finishing your last game(s), you should report the current standing in the comment field, and also say something about why the game did not finish. If you are silent, the judge will assume that you are behind in the game.

I didn't finish among the last 2 in my group. Why was I relegated?

We don't like rewarding players who don't finish their games. If you avoided relegation in your group by not finishing your games, the referee may prefer to relegate you and promote a player who completed all their games. If in the final phase of a round, games relevant to relegation are likely not to be completed, you must enter the provisional standings in the comment field and provide an explanation of why the game wasn't completed. If no information is provided, the referee will assume that the one benefiting from not completing the game is at a disadvantage. Never enter a provisional result in the table!

What is the tiebreaker if two or more players end up with the same number of match points? The overall spread or head-to-head results?

The spread, i.e. the total amount of points you have scored in your games, minus the total amount of points your opponents have scored in these games. If equal on this criteria, the rating is the next criteria.

Many Wordfeud players count tiles, by using wordfeud secretary, or a list with the letter distribution, striking letters out as the play progresses. Is this practice considered fair play?

Yes, this is considered fair play, as it is in competitive Scrabble.

Is it considered fair play to consult a dictionary or word list between seasons, as practice for upcoming seasons?

Yes, this is considered fair play.

I suspect that Barryburry uses a cheating app. What can I do about that?

Report suspected cheating to your judge: intwlohjudge@yahoo.com (English International League), wlohreferee@gmail.com (Spanish), wlohmoderator@gmail.com (US English), wlohdomare@hotmail.com (Swedish), dommer krøllalfa scrabbleforbundet.no (Norwegian), moderateur.wloh@protonmail.com (French), dkwlohdommer@gmail.com (Danish), wloh.pt@gmail.com (Portuguese), gkvernel@online.no (German), Yatzydommer1@outlook.com (Yatzy), qlohjudge@gmail.com (Qaardz) or ref.wloh@gmail.com (Dutch). It would be nice if you provide documentation, by submitting screen shots of what you consider to be foul play. On most smartphones a screenshot is taken by pressing the home button and the lock button simultaneously. The images can then be found in the picture gallery on your phone. Before you submit a cheating allegation, you should consider the possibility that you've actually stumbled upon a skilful and experienced player. Many players might have played Scrabble for years, others are experienced crossword solvers, and over the years they have built an impressive vocabulary. Also remember that Wordfeud gives you an infinite number of tries per move. This means that in principle, you can keep trying until you get it right.

Quirky details

Barryburry was about to lose big-time, and resigned the game to limit the damages. Is that allowed?

This sorts under the legal term 'frowned upon'. Not serious enough to qualify for punishment, but not good sportsmanship, either. And it's not too clever, because you may subtract 50 points from his score.

Barryburry plays slow because he will take advantage of the game not finishing. Is that allowed?

No, we'd like the games to finish. You cannot be promoted or save yourself from relegation in this way, and if it seems to happen in your league, tell the judge: intwlohjudge@yahoo.com (International), wlohmoderator@gmail.com (US English), wlohreferee@gmail.com (Spanish), wlohdomare@hotmail.com (Swedish), dommer krøllalfa scrabbleforbundet.no (Norwegian), dkwlohdommer@gmail.com (Danish), moderateur.wloh@protonmail.com (French), gkvernel@online.no (German), Yatzydommer1@outlook.com (Yatzy), qlohjudge@gmail.com (Qaardz), wloh.pt@gmail.com (Portuguese) or ref.wloh@gmail.com (Dutch).

If both players are displeased with the results of a game; may they then play a rematch?

A rematch might ruin it for the others in your group, and that's not fair; you can't just play all your lost games again and again until you are promoted. It's the first game started after the start of the tournament that counts. But every now and then players are unfortunate in the middle of a game, their cell phone dies or they accidentally push 'Resign'. In principle the other player wins, and is fully entitled to register the result 150-0. But if you'd like to be nice, you may offer a restart. If the resigned player was trailing, there's also an opening for agreeing upon a starting score which is added to the previously leading player's final score (as long as you don't break any score records this way). Offering such a restart is allowed when your opponent obviously was unfortunate, especially if the game was open - it's not as natural if the resigned player was trailing by lightyears and the game was practically over.

How do you decide who plays in group 1 and 2 and so on in a division? Do you pick balls from a bowl?

The player with the highest ranking (see next question) is put in group 1, the second highest in group 2 and so on. When we get to the highest group number, the direction shifts, so that if there are 8 groups, numbers 8 and 9 will be in group 8, whilst numbers 10 and 7 will be in group 7, etc. The mail kicking off each season indirectly shows you the ranking by the order of the names; the first player in the list is the highest ranked in your group, and so on.

How do you calculate the ranking?

First, the previous season is calculated. In wordfeud, the formula is 5000 - (division no. * 900) + (avg. points per game * 850) + (avg. margin per game * 4). Example of calculation: say you play in division 5, you played 8 matches, won 4 lost 4, hence got 8 points. You got a spread of 4400-4000. Then the value of your season is 5000-(5*900)+(8/8*850)+((4400-4000)/8*4)= 5000-4500+850+200 = 1550. This is the number showing on the players´ page. The rating is the average of this number and your current rating. That means the last season you played counts for 50% of the rating, the second-to-last season 25%, then 12,5%, 6,25% and so on.

Is it possible to be promoted if you're number two?

The rule in WLoH is that the winner is promoted, and the last two are relegated. Finishing runner-up in a group is a great achievement, and it yields better ranking and hence a presumptively easier group next season, but it does not lead to promotion. But there are indeed two exceptions:

- The lowest division is not always filled (it's full when it has twice as many groups as the division above it). In these seasons more than one player per group is promoted from the lowest division. This is defined in the mail that the players receive. Some times the mail will say that 50% of the runners-up will be promoted, or 66% of the bronze medalists. The ranking will decide who of these will be promoted.

- If one has finished in second place, one may also theoretically be promoted because there is a function that promotes players if there are many players on the next level that take a break / have resigned from WLoH / have been thrown out. (More precisely: It kicks in if the number of participants falls more than one below the normal number, and the normal number is 10 in divisions 1 and 2, 9 in division 3, and 8 in the other divisions.) The function also uses the ranking, and compares everyone in the same division (including for instance those who finished no. 3, or those relegated from the division above). The goal is to promote the best players regardless of where they played the previous season. This function has hardly ever kicked in; empirically speaking, the chances of being promoted this way is 0.3%, and up until season 16 it has never happened below division 3. So it's not an important function of WLoH, but runners-up often seem to focus on this one.

If I'd like to skip more than one season and deactivate my user for a period of time, will I have to start in the lowest division when I return?

Hardly. If you skip only two seasons, you will most likely be returned to the division you left. At irregular intervals inactive players are relegated one step at a time. This happens when their division has grown too big. So when you deactivate your user, you let other players' movements control your status. Some people have skipped many seasons and returned to the same level; others have plummeted four steps since they took their LOA. Players are not relegated more than one step at a time, and if the system doesn't have to relegate everyone, the players with the best merits keep their places.

Several users

Can you have more than one user?

Yes, as long as you don't get an advantage from it or create problems for other users. To obtain this, the rules are: Register that you have two users on the sign up-page. It should prevent you from meeting yourself, but if that happens anyway, set 0-0 in the match between your own users. And each of your users should correspond to a user with the same name in Wordfeud, so you don't have to tell people that they have to invite you on another nick. Also, remember that some of your opponents may consider two users Not Cool.

Other games

We have leagues in other games than Wordfeud. For instance Ordly, which is competitive Wordle, Yatzy World, Chess.com and Qaardz. You sign up for these leagues on the sign-up page.

The league rules are similar as for Wordfeud: no cheating. It's not a competition between helping devices, help us keep it a battle of brains. The ranking in the other games differs a little from wordfeud/yatzy. For instance, QuizBattle has 5000 - (division no. * 900) + (avg. points per game *850) + (avg. margin per game /25).

The rules if your opponents resigns are: For Quizbattle, either register 6000-0 or draw 2000 points from your opponents score. Similar numbers for Qaardz are, 50-0 or -20. For Ruzzle, 1000-0 or -300. QuizUp and QuizKampen, 3-0 or -1. Chess, 2-0. Quizdan 5-0 or -5. Krudoku, 300-0 or -100. Yatzy uses same rules as Wordfeud, 150-0 or -50.