We are taking June off. The league will resume on 1st July. All players will start in the divisions that they achieved at the end of May. Recruitment to the Fledglings will start in the last week of June.

There are several ways to invite an opponent to play a match with the timer enabled.

Be sure to review the Timers Documentation Page  for complete details on the play timers.

All matches are initiated by either a direct "invite" to an opponent or an "offer" to play a match in which the opponent would "take".

No matter which method you choose, all matches are created using the match-specifications tool.  To offer a match with timer, you enable the timer feature in your "invite" or in your "offer".

Follow these steps to create an "invite" that is saved as a "token" that can be used many times to create the same match specifications.

1) Go to the Dashboard, the "Invites Token Manager " page to create an invite token with timer enabled, this link: dashboard invites

2) Use the A:"Create a New Token" button to open the match-specification tool. Be sure to select B:"Play Timer:" option, relaxed, fast, or rapid.

3) Enable your new match invite offer to show in your list of offers in the "Ready To Play" tool of the Openplay Parlour  by C:clicking on the circle-up-arrow icon.

Steps 2 and 3,  follow A:, B:, C: ...



Once your Invite Token is created, whenever you use the "Ready To Play" button, this token with the timer enabled match will be in your list for opponents to take you upon your offer to play.

The ELOs at SimplyBG are currently undergoing reengineering. These changes are not changes to the algorithm in any way. What is happening mostly is the additional support to ELOs for increased granularity based on both player and match types being played.

We have always supported ELO ratings on matches as described on this page:
https://www.simplybg.com/features.html

Attached see recent chatter from the chat board in the Openplay Parlour  related to ELO discussion.

Please feel free to comment on this post.  You're welcome to subscribe to it, as doing so will send you notices whenever updates are made.

Update May-01-2023:
The Player stats showing ELOs has been updated to show ALL your ELOs and a bar-configuration-tool to graph 4 ELOs at a time.
See: https://www.simplybg.com/dashboard/playstats/


Update May-05-2023:
The presentation of the ELOs for players is currently being worked on. In the coming days and weeks, you will be able to view all ELOs for any player.


Hank

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
   

  openplay_elo_chatter_april_2023.pdf (Size: 1.93 MB / Downloads: 25)

Hi,
anybody else missing that?
Whenever there's a change on said page it would be nice to have a sound playing.

Cheers, /T

Matches in this competition are all single-sitting, head-to-head with just two opponents, or in a single-elimination tournament up to 16 players.

The Parlour: the World Cup , (https://www.simplybg.com/parlour/worldcup/ppaOH76LX ) will be used to play matches in this competition.

These single-sitting matches will be governed by timer-enabled matches. Each participant will be required to meet simultaneously to start the match.

There are a variety of tools available to help you and your opponent select meetup times that work for both schedules and time zones.

Play when you can, every hour, or whenever your schedule allows.  Earn points for completed matches in the competition.

Standings will be maintained and published over several weeks and months.

I invite you to reply to this thread with questions, comments, or suggestions.

This post will be updated as more details become available. Use the "Subscribe" checkboxes below to be notified when these updates happen.

Hi
I keep wondering, if I'd be the only one who is annoyed by the behavior of the players' list in the Openplay parlour Opponents list.
Items in the list can only be sorted by that "Sort" button, which offers to sort after "Most relevant"(?).
Also, the items on that list keep jumping around.
Is there a deeper meaning with that?

Cheers
/T

I saw these helpful videos online that show some introductory tips and some discussion of the rules of backgammon.

Question: How do you see what your ELO is?

                  The best place to see your ELO is on the Dashboard Player Stats Page .

Question: Why does it seem the dice auto-roll is enabling itself?

                  The dice will indeed automatically engage in an auto-roll state whenever your turn is in a position of no moves.
                  One example is when you have one or more checkers on the bar and your opponent has a full block in the HOME
                  board and the double-cube is not in play for you.

Question: How can I see if my opponent is actively viewing the playboard of our match?

                  There are a couple of ways to detect if an opponent is viewing the playboard.
                    1)  There is a red, yellow, or green dot in the upper left corner of the opponent avatar shown on the /play/ link.
                          When your opponent is active, the dot will be green or yellow when they viewed the board in the last few minutes.
                          And red otherwise.  At times this dot may be flashing a white/red pattern. This is an indicator that your opponent is
                          active at the site and is viewing one of the pages that will notify them if it is their turn.
                    2)   The Dashboard Matches page shows all your unfinished matches.  Whenever your opponent is actively viewing the
                          match, a green lightbulb icon is shown in the list nearest the player's name. The lightbulb icon will appear grey otherwise.

Question: Is there a setting for me to play against "the computer"?

                  No. SimplyBG is 100%, real players.

I have been investigating various online video meeting services for the purpose of adding this as a feature to SimplyBG.

The idea is to have audio and video, group meetings, side-by-side with an active backgammon match. Both opponents and kibitzers would be able to join the online video session.

I feel this feature would significantly improve the online playing experience.

Adding this feature to the SimplyBG site would introduce additional costs as imposed by the service providers of the video streaming service companies.

This would be the 1st add-on feature we would provide at SimplyBG. It would be an elective feature that you would choose to enable on your account.

If the idea of group video and chat integrated with the backgammon playboard is something that you are interested in, let me know your thoughts to help me proceed with this work.

Thank you, Frank

Please see the YouTube video, An introduction to the Raptor League Backgammon Tournament on SimplyBG.com.
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