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Arimaa >> Site Discussion >> Suspected ratings abuse by user Owl
(Message started by: mattj256 on Jan 18th, 2016, 5:43pm)

Title: Suspected ratings abuse by user Owl
Post by mattj256 on Jan 18th, 2016, 5:43pm
Hi all.

I was about to play the bot ladder today and noticed that several bots had recently lost more than 100 ratings points.  I did some investigation and user Owl seems to be engaged in a pattern of losing to bot_ArimaaScoreP1, then winning against other bots.  These are all rated games, and the net effect is to artificially lower the ratings of Owl and the other bots.

The following bots are affected: bot_Aamira2006P1, bot_ArimaaScoreP2, bot_Loc2007P1, bot_ShallowBlue, bot_Sharp2008P1, bot_GnoBot2005P1, bot_OpFor2008P1, bot_Arimaazilla, bot_Bomb2005P1, bot_OpFor2008P2, bot_Aamira2006P2, bot_Loc2007P2, bot_Sharp2008P2, bot_Clueless2007P1, bot_GnoBot2005P2, bot_Clueless2007P2, bot_Loc2007Fast

(I don't have time or patience to check every single one.  Every bot that I have spot-checked has followed the same pattern: Owl loses to bot_ArimaaScoreP1, then wins against the ladder bot.)

I wouldn't care if he/she did exactly the same thing with unrated games.  I also wouldn't care if he/she intentionally lost one or two games.  The effect here is that the bots' ratings are being distorted, and that's something the community should be aware of.

I did a quick Google search and wasn't able to find any official site policies for non-tournament games.  I think a reasonable outcome here would be to change all Owl's recent games to unrated and apply warning or sanctions to Owl's account.  Can someone please reach out to Omar?  Also, is there anyone other than Omar who is able to remedy the situation?  

Thanks.
Matthew



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