Discussing Online Competitions: Losing on Purpose/Habitual Forfeiting

[Almonds]

I've never seen a topic on losing on purpose during online competitions, so I thought I'd start this thread. I think the behavior mentioned is called, 'habitual forfeiting'.

There are seasonal rankings, and the points are given depending on your wins and losses.

However, there are people who participate just for the sake of participating. If there are prizes, some just register for an entry, hit the forfeit button immediately as they are matched with somebody, and lose. Or bring a whole team of level 1 mons. The opposing competitor receives points without doing anything at all. In other games, losing on purpose often counts as a form of cheating, especially when it involves having more than one account and therefore, letting one account get all the points while having the other accounts lose on purpose. This can happen with a team of friends as well - purposely losing to each other so that they can rack up on points without having to play a lengthy game. In some cases, the higher your rank is, the better the prizes are, so this form of cheating is not uncommon. There are people who consider wins against players losing on purpose as a harmless free win. There are also people who consider it as cheating because the winners get points for free. They often call such behavior as insulting because there are players who play for hours to win, and if they receive the same points as someone who continuously won against a purposely planned loss, it would be rather frustrating.

1. Do you think losing on purpose/habitual forfeiting should be banned?

2. Do you think players who lose on purpose should be disqualified and undeserving of prizes? (mileage points and event distributions)

3. Do you think people who won just because the other person forfeited on the first turn should not receive points? Do you think they gained their points fairly?

 

[Soki]

To question 1 and 2:
I think losing on purpose/habitual forfeiting is annoying, if I win because of that it feels cheap and like I don't really deserve the points I got. And it's indeed also unfair to those that did win fair battles. It's clear those people are only joining a competition to get the prize, so I indeed think they should be banned and/or not get the prize(s). However, I think it would be quite difficult to pick out the people that are doing this on purpose. Some people just have shitty internet connection or they forfeit a game because real life is calling and they don't have time to finish the battle. Also, it could also be that some people really are unfamiliar with competitions and enter with low-leveled Pokémon, you never know. It would be unfair to ban these people or not give them the prize.

To question 3:
No. Even though those people didn't really get their points fairly, it's not their fault they had an easy win so they shouldn't be punished for it.

Maybe the easiest way to lessen the amount of players that do this, is to limit the prizes to those that have finished at least 10 battles or so. Now it's only three I think, making it quite easy for someone to join just for the prize, not for the battling. And/or maybe there should be a rule that your Pokémon should at least be level 50.

 

[Wispy Willow]

And/or maybe there should be a rule that your Pokémon should at least be level 50.

To which I respond with this. It is a pretty uncommon and gimmicky strategy, but it is a legitimate strategy nonetheless.

Other then that, I pretty much agree with everything Soki said: it isn't exactly good that people are entering competitions for the prizes alone, but there isn't really a good way to prevent instant forfeiting for said prize, and thus the people that face someone who forfeits turn 1 or something like that don't really deserve to be punished since they didn't do anything wrong.

 

[Kirby4ever]

It also be unfair to ban someone who forfeits when they know that things are already bad in the battle and there's no chance to recover from it, such as in the single battle, one person has single Pokemon left and the Pokemon has like maybe 15HP left and the opponent has one Pokemon who's poisoned at a quarter of it's HP left, one Pokemon has only 50% of it's HP left, and the third one is still healthy. The person with one Pokemon left had no choice but to forfeit because it's already clear that they're going to lose anyways.

 

[Wispy Willow]

It also be unfair to ban someone who forfeits when they know that things are already bad in the battle and there's no chance to recover from it, such as in the single battle, one person has single Pokemon left and the Pokemon has like maybe 15HP left and the opponent has one Pokemon who's poisoned at a quarter of it's HP left, one Pokemon has only 50% of it's HP left, and the third one is still healthy. The person with one Pokemon left had no choice but to forfeit because it's already clear that they're going to lose anyways.

A. As long as there is an option that isn't labled 'Run', the first player can still choose not to forfeit - who knows, they may be able to somehow turn it around - and B. this thread, as far as I understand it, is on the topic of people who are just entering online competitions just for the participation prize and gives up turn 1 as opposed to someone who is actually in it to have a good battle or two and only forfeits if they are certian that they can't win.

 

[Fairy Type Arceus]

People shouldn't give up so soon

Doubles OU (suspect test) replay: Kimmy<3 vs. Pokehokage2 - Pokémon Showdown

In this battle I was pretty much done for and my come back was on luck alone and she could have made a come back one thunder and my skarmory would have been done for and she would just need to take Audino out of course landing thunder is based on luck with its low accuracy