Augustus Perplexus is a top flight player who artificially keeps his rating at rock bottom by resigning most games after a few moves.

I don't mind playing other top flight players like Bush or Steven because if I win I get many ranking points and if I lose I don't lose many.

However with Augustus Perplexus, if I win I don't get any points and if I lose I get nailed.  I think Augustus Perplexus could be one of us playing under a pseudonym or he could just be a top player who likes to play havoc with our rating system.

Any ideas what can be done about this?

Arimaa had a top player who did this a long time ago. He was told to knock it off.

Another option is to derank his games.

Oh good grief….“I have an idea what can be done about this”.  If the opponent is intimidated, resign on the 1st move and the game is not rated, you lose no points and you put me in your rear view mirror.  If the player is confident….like they say in the golf commercials…“go play”.

Just forget about the rating and play a game.

My girlfriend gets turned on when my ratings are above 2000 and she is a wild woman when I get above 2100.

If I ever break 2200 I will probably end up dead.  But what a way to go.

See, he's doing you a favor.

Yes, he is probably a second account of one top player. Pathetic.

I don't know if this would work, but has anybody considering ASKING the dude what's going on with him?  While this is certainly not the first occurrence here of folks playing games with ratings, tournament entries, etc. (actually, there are many examples spread over several games), Mr. Perplexus was nice enough to reply to this once already.  So - what's up, doc??

(meow)

Mr Cat,

Don't hold your breath waiting for Agustus to defend his position.  There is no defense.

MisterCat, I find these forum posts essentially a gossip column so I will let my last comment stand. Opponents can stop & go

or stay & play, players choice. Also, I don't have a medical degree & your pussy is adorable.

There you go, Augustus is totally unapologetic and I suspect he will keep on doing what he has been doing.  I for one won't play him again.  If others do the same perhaps he will tire of his shenanigans.  But he seems pretty immature so maybe not.

I am assuming that there is still the ability to black list other players. To quote Shakespeare “Life is too short to bandy words, or play twixt with a douch.”

Hey, I remember that exact quote in my high school English class - especially the douche part.

I had also complained about this behavior once before.  If you have a concern, speak directly to Augustus as I have found him to be an honorable player.

I have a couple of suggestions:

If it is indeed true that Augustus only likes to play top rated player, he can or we can easily play unrated games to our hearts content.  Alternatively, you can resign on the first move with no ranking points lost.  I imagine if that happened enough, he might actually play the lower ranked players and build up his ranking.

I don't know if he plays rating games, but you can set an upper/lower ranking limit for such games.  I wish there were the same option for MC tournaments as well.

I think Augustus doesn't understand the problem himself in the following sense, and sorry Steven his lack of trying to understand it puts his honour outside the category of 'honorable players'.

The real problem is not that he is playing with the rating system, but that his experiments causes (as he implies himself) that other players have to consider if the want to play particular games, while the mere fact that the game started already says they want to play them.

In other words:

if a board appears on my screen I want to think above which move I want to play. The move 'resign' I only consider if I don't see a 'hopeful' move (except for soccer, where resigning is always improper), but I never want to have to consider AGAIN if I want to play this game or not against this opponent.

Augustus things it is natural to do so, I think it is annoying to have to do so, but the behaviour of Augustus is not only a choice for himself but everyone has to ask like him, and that is annoying when you come to play here for fun.

I he is honorable indeed, he should try to understand this and act upon it.

With this much interest in a single player's actions it is clear to me that most people at least find it annoying.  In sports, a team or person would be booed off the field if they gave up against a weaker opponent.  This is not the normally accepted type of behavior.  I would not call it good sportsmanship.  I can play lower ranked players and spend only a minute or two to find the moves.  All the rest of us do that as well.

I do not see any problem. If someone want to play only with high elo players - why not? That's only game. Of course he can invite some top players to unranked games but who really cares about ranking?

I care about rankings.  My girlfriend gets turned on when I am above 2000

I could barely walk when I broke 2100.  If I ever break 2200 I'm a dead man.

I used to think spd_iv or Maciej should write a book about Twixt. Now I think mtbikesman should.