Comments about the New Forum Format since the May Update/Download???

[Kt]

At 8 am Sunday morning a character name of Bossy Faster with a bomb icon is leading my Arena game with 195 stars. With the current pay to play and win scheme, it is hard to know if this one is another cheater/hacker or just someone with money to spend. This kind of start to the Arena week doesn’t create much an incentive for me to play in the Arena. 7 games, 5 with a price tag of gems, if you are being offered opponents with all level 9 birds who bring in spells as I am. I have won many Arena matches playing fair games with equal ranked opponents and equal bird levels, no spells. When I decided to try playing some games bringing in spells, I really didn’t get more stars than I was already getting for my win, so I quit using them. I’m not sure I’ll play this Arena beyond satisfying the Daily Quest unless the game offers me better odds.

Topic

[Rowdypup]

@ktcain in my Arena last week, this guy with 492 stars kept entering and leaving the leaderboard, confusing the game and making me get below average than I usually place (2nd or 3rd)- what the heck?

[Kt]

@rowdypup

With the new name scheme and the opportunity to buy a win at the end of each Arena match in the new format, it is increasingly hard to know if you’re group of 15 players are cheater/hackers or just folks with plenty of money to play this game. I have won many arena tourneys with and without using spells, but now I won’t bring in spells and I won’t pay to win. I’m over-matched in almost every round and of course lose most of them. I expect I will be dropped down from the Diamond League to a lower League. I only play the Arena now to satisfy the Daily Quest. I choose not to spend my money that way. As to the player appearing and disappearing from your group, that sounds like a cheater/hacker playing with the game.

[metztli013]

So, here’s a bummer: I got matched to an opponent much higher than me, so like I always did before, rather than playing and losing I opted to close the game and reload to get a different opponent. That was counted as a break in my streak, as when I logged back on and went to arena, it reset. =( Boo.

[Rowdypup]

@ktcain I can definitely tell that a few cheaters are in my Arena group when I see over 100 stars on day 1 of the new tournament, leaving the rest of us authentic players to suffer the means of being demoted- the only safe tournaments out there in the Angry Birds universe is lonely Go!, which nobody (except me) does for fun anymore- I always win those tournaments, because Red and Chuck always “go easy” on me- unlike other tournaments, such as Fight!, Transformers, Epic, Friends, and (aforementioned) 2 where people clash for glory and fame over just a game

[CaptSternn]

Kt, a lot of have experienced being moved from one group to another, sometimes several times and several groups. And usually to our disadvantage. Seems to be a bug or glitch, nothing to do with hacking or cheating. That isn’t to say there are no cheaters or people taking advantage of certain “features”, exploiting the program. That has been confirmed and reported to Rovio.

Edit: I have two players in my group duking it out in 1st and 2nd place. 1st already has 354 stars and 2nd has 305. I am a measly 3rd with 214, but not playing much right now. Blues is already at level 9 anyway.

[Kt]

@captsternn

After the March update/download, I too, found that I was moved from game to game throughout the week, finally ending up with a group with whom I remained towards the end of the week. Bankler explained some time back that we are all in many Arena games, but the one that counts is the one that we see ourselves in at the end of the Tourney. That is the star count that determines our place in the awards. I took the being moved about that I was suddenly seeing as all the games that I was posited in which had not happened before March. After my birds leveled up, I found that I was in games whose leader’s star count were in the thousands. Cheater/hackers!

In my last game before the May update/download, a cheater/hacker, Rich, with a tiger character as an icon appeared in the game I was winning on Wed afternoon with a star count of 2025. He also appeared in Cheaterhater’s game around the same time with the same star count. That is what Rowdypup is talking about. A cheater who shows up like that.

Rovio said that they would look at the all the Arena winners after the end of last week’s Tourney and eliminate those players whose scores were unreasonably high. They did so and instead of being 2nd in my Tourney because of Rich, I was 1st and awarded the 100 gems. Others reported the same thing happening including Cheaterhater and Dwhite, if I recall correctly.

As to your game, I was reading the many posts from Cheaterhater regarding the large group of players who are simply paying for feathers and spells to level their birds up quickly, buying spells and willing to pay gems for extra cards to win in this new Arena format. So, for example, those players with a ranking below 20 who have level 9 birds and 5 spells may not be cheater/hackers at all but people with money to spend and time to play and who like to win. The new Arena format has changed the game from the straight forward skill game I began playing when I entered the game to a pay to play and win scheme.

I have won many tournaments since beginning the game, am in the Diamond League, and cannot get past the 3rd round in the new Tournament scheme because I am matched with players with all cards leveled to 9 and 5 spells and I won’t bring in spells and pay for extra cards at the end to beat them.