Wordfeud League of Honour

The current rules re auto results have been in place for a long time and until recently there have been no more than a few instances where an intervention was deemed appropriate. The rules are clear. A player with an unfinished game is entitled to benefit from an auto result unless they are deemed to be deliberately stalling to avoid delegation/achieve promotion. This has worked very well for nearly 100 seasons. Of late there has been an issue re auto results. There seems to have been a suggestion that players cannot benefit from auto results. That is not correct as the rules stand. If a player is due to benefit then they should submit screenshots of the board and perhaps more importantly, of efforts they have made to get a game completed - polite messages via chat. Players should take responsibility for doing so before the season´s end.

I have looked at this from both sides now and still somehow...I don´t think that a player should be penalised for not being able to start/complete a game against a recalcitrant opponent. I fully appreciate that the latter have all sorts of reasons for not playing.

I would not subscribe to a mathematical formula - it creates artificial results and detracts from the spirit of the league which, I see as play/win/lose. Every game is different; it depends on, at least, a few things: focus at the time, luck of letters and your opponent. That is another reason that I would not be a fan of a mathematical formula.

In this group, though I am speaking generally, there appears to be no reason for inferring stalling.

I have never seen an alternative to the current rules that serves to better deal with unfinished/not started games. Removing a player if no games are played is fine, in my opinion, but removing after several losses lays the system open to abuse. As every game is different, I am not a fan of head to head.

As it stands there are swings and roundabouts - I have been on both and also on the slide:) I wish everyone good luck in the coming season.

- if someone withdraws or is withdrawn halfway a season, all games against that player fall away from the ranking. (I sort of expected that when I asked my question on 21/4).

- plus: if the judge is notified that someone has not accepted invitations ultimately x days before end of season, then that person is automatically withdrawn.

or:

- if more players end up with the same number of points, but promotion (by Lobot) of the player with the highest surplus is withheld because of an unfinished game, while that game could not be started because the third player has withdrawn, then the result between those two players with the same number of points will be used to decide who gets the promotion.

Iordo finished only two games: against Paarnaat and myself, with an average loss of 113 points. He was one move and 149 points behind against Happy Hunny when he resigned. So with this reasoning Mac would be promoted.

So your fourth option to update the rules would be to take the average of the games played (whatever their number) by the person who steps out halfway and apply that. I would argue, however, that this is a more complex variant of option 3.

I am really ok with any decision, but would hope that an extra place falls free in division 2 :-)

I already wrote about this: it is strange that this round is decided on the results of someone who withdrew halfway.

But that is part of the game and the rules should be applied. If the rules say that Mac wins the season and I get promoted then so be it.

If the rules don´t give a clear answer you could:

- look at the result between Mac and myself

- argue - as you did - that she would have made her average score surplus on a normal game. But then we have to exclude the game against rhm who was taken out of competition, so 388-150 divided by 6 games (188/6) equals 31. This would only add 31 points to Mac´s surplus.

-take out the results against Iordo, that would lower my surplus by 127.

In option 1 and 2, I would go through, in option 3 Mac goes through.

So if the rules are unclear on this, it is really up to you to decide and update the rules.

Best of luck

I was just checking what to do, as this group may well be decided on the results against someone who gave up halfway our round.

But that´s all in the game, of course.

Thanks for the good work.

:-( I feel such a muppet !! Its never happened before, although I´ve had opponents do it to me, and I know that it can cause bad feeling. I´ve sent Lausier a PM, and thought I´d express this here as well. Due to terminal health conditions i take 22 pills a day, including 160mg of morphine which is the cause of my occasional drowsiness...plus I push myself as hard as possible mon - fri trying to do just basic household chores, then I allow myself to rest at the weekend !

WordFeud / WLOH have become a healthy addiction, and I try to put a lot of effort into all of my games - I just may not have them all finished within a few days.

All opponents are awarded a 150-0 win and may enter that result.

HAPPY HUNNY, GEODON786 and BAZZWORD are not only great players, but beautiful individuals who supports WLoH and helps a silly old bot like me stay alive.

The winner gets promoted, the two last players will be relegated. I feel pretty confident that paarnaat wins the season.