My first day back on Funkypool for some time, and it will be my last im afraid.

First round of the tournie, and my opponant is lagging badly. Not responding/responding the whole game, missing shots by lag etc etc

Tournie time runs out and we are both disqualified. I know its an old problem, but whats the point in there being a shot clock, when it runs out and you have to wait another 30 seconds for the random shot?

I would have thought this would have been solved as its one of the reasons i stopped playing way back when.

A real shame. Cheerio!

Edited at 14:22 Mon 12/05/08 (BST)

A good point Greg.

Players deliberately slowing down the game of play if they are losing to get both players DQ'ed, a shameful unsporting act.

I think what we should bring in is if it's 1-1 in a tournament...and it's down to the last minute of play. We should elect the person with the most balls potted on the table to proceed to the next round.

Or in other cases, if you are winning 2-0 and your opponent has slowed down the game. It's down to last minute again, we should elect the person with most games won to proceed to next round.

Agree?

Nope

If player A is playing player B and player A has potted 6 balls and player A has not potted one yet, but is their visit I'd argue that player A (i.e with 7 balls still remaining) will win the majority of the time.

Apart from that I can't see anything with wrong with the player in the lead by frame score going through, in that situation.

On this note one thing I've noticed is that in tournament game, some players (wont name names) seem to wait until the last moment before entering the game room, quite often one of the time warnings will have apperad before we even start, this may only be in speed tournies im not sure, but this leaves it that I'm almost forced into a position where I HAVE to play an attacking game, lest we both get DQ'ed, wheras perhaps I would play a cautious game, especially in the case of a speed tourney where it's only one frame. Surely this puts some players at a disadvantage?

Good point.

I don't think it would make too much of difference to start the match timer after all invites would have expired.

Or the match timer starts as each game instance starts (i.e both players have entered room).

Yeah if this idea was to be added, what would happen if both players are tied, EG. 1-1 and both on 1 ball?

They would be banned from funkypool.

Talk about high stakes pool.

the random shot time limit comes into effect when the shot timer runs out ON THAT PERSONS COMPUTER.so they timer might have started later and really other than advert it is a players connection speed which is a factor of lag

i think it should only be person who winning by games goes through and not potted because there have been numerous times where one player has potted all but one of their coloured balls but has snookered themselves/fouled and the other player has potted all 7 after that and then the black/8

Yeah this particular thing has bugged me many times too.

I really wish we could have had a more fair system regarding tournament shot/game timers, then again it's the problem of striking a balance between fairness on one hand and making things move forward on the other.

My thoughts:

1. Round time should start counting from the time both players enter the room or from the time one player is DQed for absence (which ever happens first)

2. Use a chess clock system for shot timers. You have the same shot time as you have now (and random shot if you are too slow), but in addition keep a record of accumulated shot time spend by each player. When the tournament round time is up, the player with the lowest accumulated shot time spent goes through, the other is DQed.

Yes, this wouldn't always be fair either, but a lot more of the time than the current system at least, and wouldn't slow down the overall tourny progress.


(and I completely agree with Colins - you can't use the number of balls remaining, since the player who has potted the most balls at any given time is normally not the player "in the lead" as long as the other player is the active one)

Edited at 18:57 Mon 12/05/08 (BST)

2. Use a chess clock system for shot timers.

Yes a good idea in my opinion and one that was discussed last year

http://www.funkypool.com/viewTopic.do?topicid=11394

The important bit is to make sure the overall slowest player is the one who should be concerned about the tourny round clock. Since in virtually all cases where a player is deliberately stalling, that player WILL have the highest total shot time - and should thus be DQed while the other one goes through.

And you don't really need to make it exactly like a real chess clock. You could still keep the fixed shot timer we have now, but record (in the background, not visible) the overall time used by each player and use it to draw the right player through in case of a round timeout.

Edited at 21:46 Mon 12/05/08 (BST)