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One of my dealings with a USBGF director and match recording
Posted By: Henrik Bukkjaer In Response To: One of my dealings with a USBGF director and match recording (Michael Petch)
Date: Thursday, 3 February 2011, at 8:16 p.m.
Among Social players a PR of 18+ is bad and I don't post many of them unless it was someone who asked me to analyze it. On occasion the PRs have been so bad that I have jokingly told the person they don't want to know and give them their PR/ER, post the match temporarily and then remove it.
Only one person over the years has asked me not to publish certain matches because they felt a bit embarrassed (They are a very good player, just a bit self conscious, and their PRs average in the 7-8 range). In this type of case I do take it seriously, and try to accommodate.
I can only say that Intermediate/Advanced players may be less self conscious about their Error rates/PR's than one might realize. A WC player may not like people to know when they play a 10, but an intermediate/advanced player likely won't care because 10's probably fall in their range on a regular basis.
http://www.capp-sysware.com/analysis/SteveWorld_Stick_DoublingCube_200905301202_006.html
Here's Stick beating the crap out of a player who's sporting an ER of 29 [twenty nine].
:-)
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That said, I simply cannot comprehend why people have the opinion, that it's not OK to post matches where so-called WC players are posting ERs in the 5-8 range. WTF! It's a match they played, to the best of their ability (to win), and you post the log. If it's a tournament IRL or an open for kibitz tournament online, then posting the log should be straight forward. Could we imagine other sports we the players at the highest level had the right to veto their games from being put on cable?!
If I were playing online to earn a living, I'd ask that people ONLY posted matches where I played ER 5+. I'd ask that my sub 3 matches were removed instantly. What better advertising space could a pro player get?
OK, back to the big egos: You could argue that posting high ERs from matches like that Stick played above, give a false representation of the player's strength. Correct, the WC player will adjust cube points and steer into more complex checkerplays to maximize ER difference, not minimize absolute ER. And so what?! Posting such a match would IMHO be a better evidence of world class. Remember, we are talking about posting the match log, not the ERs. The ERs are byproducts of the actual play. If people are to lazy to look at the actual checkerplay, but simply scroll to the button and look at ERs, then that's their problem! The danger here are the people who want to post average ER ratings! And sites that don't provide the matches, but only provide the ERs.
In my opinion, posting matches where WC players make decisions that they know will harm their ER, but maximize their ME, is exactly the way we need to take backgammon! We're not playing machines, we're playing humans with different styles. The best players in the world might not be able to beat the current bots on average ,but they sure as hell are able to beat regular players at a higher rate than their neural net non-carbon based counterparts!
Then someone might say that posting a NeilKaz game where the oracle plays 6,2 will hurt his backgammon vanity. People expect WC players to play 3 or lower all the time! They won't vote for a giant that posts the occasional 7. The hell with it. That entire image and that ER scale are just emphasized by filtering out the bad games! We're screwing the advanced and intermediate player's minds and selfconfidence, by projecting this glamour image of selected ERs. We're showing eclectic scores, and passing them on as "normal" or "average". That's more wrong than being honest about it.
We don't want to embarrass a star by posting a 5,7 match you say? Well, just stating that is embarrassing the entire intermediate and beginner flights, who can only dream of playing below 7!
If I were mr. Petch or someone else recording matches that are played public or as parts of tournaments, I'd post every bit of it - bar the recreational players doing 29, they should be left alone if they feel that posting is ridiculing them. All the other players should just shut up and work on their game instead if they are not happy.
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Also the discussion on USBGF claiming rights to match files are somewhat fun. I thought their business were to promote competitive backgammon? How better than circulating as many games as possible, played at their sanctioned events by their members? If they care too much on holding on to membership values, they should think of ways to differentiate their product, improving the standard good, not monopoly. Provide proper analysis (not just ERs), then you have a product worth paying for.
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