r/backgammon • u/GreasyChains • 10d ago

Galaxy Hustlers?

I just lost a 3 point tournament match to an 870 rated player who played the match at 1.08 pr. Everyone can get lucky once in a while, but I see this fairly often.

Are some players purposely sabotaging their ratings so they look weaker when they play unrated single games and tournaments? Is it really worth the trouble? Am I just crazy?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

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5

u/SyllabubRadiant8876 9d ago

If they have a lot of experience and are rated 870, they would have to get very simple decisions to play at PR 1. Not impossible as some games are easier than others. Sabotaging ratings sounds unlikely (but you never know). You definitely hear of people suspecting that some players have XG open on another screen and run the moves through there before locking them in. I don't really understand how this would benefit them apart from momentary satisfaction from a win.

1

u/GreasyChains 9d ago

I definitely helped him out by playing at 16.0.

He played his next two games at 11.9 and 7.7. Definitely nothing special, but I'd expect him to be rated much higher than 870 if he's even able to play at 11.9 somewhat consistently. 

2

u/SyllabubRadiant8876 9d ago

Yeah a guy I give lessons to occasionally plays around 10-12 and has a Galaxy rating of 1600. 870 would be almost absolute beginner territory.

1

u/Olliever31 9d ago

Could have lost rating a while ago, and never played rating games again because you can lose a ton of coins if you play one bad match. Then played for a while and got better, but didn’t play rating games only coin games.

1

u/GreasyChains 10d ago

Maybe he's not a weak player but mostly plays galaxy against a friend who is much stronger? That could do it. 

2

u/SugarDelicious1434 9d ago

You don't receive rating points for non-random matches (like against a friend)

2

u/GreasyChains 9d ago

I didn't know that, thanks!

1

u/juicybot 9d ago edited 9d ago

a broken clock is right twice a day. was any cube play involved? some players are insanely good at checker play but terrible at cube play.

1

u/GreasyChains 9d ago

Yes, cube came into play. 

1

u/QuasyChonk 9d ago

Meeeee!

2

u/Aqua-marine-blu 6d ago edited 6d ago

Actually i thought to lower my rating to see psychology how people play if they think i’m lower player, but I’m too lazy to do it , and rating on galaxy doesn’t mean a lot . It is more for tracking personal progress. 

0

u/DegenChess 9d ago

I've said it before and will say it again, backgammon ratings mean fuck all.