Freemiums and Tournaments
Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 9:58 amDon't drop freemiums from ongoing [auto] tournaments
Currently, players whose premium membership has lapsed are dropped from new tournament games in excess of their allowance. This is problematic in that premium players will join a tournament but a few weeks/months later their membership will lapse, resulting in them being dropped from future rounds. This harms existing players in the tournament, who are forced to play games with non-optimal sizes. For example, a four-person game becomes three-person and so forth. Assuming that game size is well-calibrated for tournaments (I generally believe it is), messing with that reduces fun for everyone. It also gives an unfair advantage to some players if scores don't reset - this is particularly pronounced in two-player tournaments with large round sizes: a 7-0 score in a later round almost guarantees an eventual tournament win.
My suggestion is that premium status is checked only upon entering tournaments, and checked against the highest number of total games in any round (this may already happen?). Once someone has joined a tournament, they will be permitted to join games in future rounds regardless of their premium status. However, if their membership lapses they will not be eligible for any prizes in that tournament.
Currently, players whose premium membership has lapsed are dropped from new tournament games in excess of their allowance. This is problematic in that premium players will join a tournament but a few weeks/months later their membership will lapse, resulting in them being dropped from future rounds. This harms existing players in the tournament, who are forced to play games with non-optimal sizes. For example, a four-person game becomes three-person and so forth. Assuming that game size is well-calibrated for tournaments (I generally believe it is), messing with that reduces fun for everyone. It also gives an unfair advantage to some players if scores don't reset - this is particularly pronounced in two-player tournaments with large round sizes: a 7-0 score in a later round almost guarantees an eventual tournament win.
My suggestion is that premium status is checked only upon entering tournaments, and checked against the highest number of total games in any round (this may already happen?). Once someone has joined a tournament, they will be permitted to join games in future rounds regardless of their premium status. However, if their membership lapses they will not be eligible for any prizes in that tournament.