Hi folks,

Im kind of new so please forgive me if I am missing something...

I entered the above tourney, to the best of my understanding it is a 1250 max.

My opponent's highest rating (Last 30 Days) is 1387 - previously he was 1910!!

Pls don't get me wrong I like a challenge but I am confused as to how I ended up with (a not far off) 1400 player (who was previously nearly 2000) in a Rookie duel!?!? 😕

Well, the magic number is that "last 30 days" rating. Think of it like this...If I'm an 1840, then quit playing for awhile and timeout all my games, I could drop to 1145. Now, if I didn't play for 30 days then I could enter the rookie duel (as my "last 30 days" rating would be 1145). As soon as I start playing in the tourney, I smoke everyone and my rating skyrockets past 1250. This is most likely how your opponent got into the rookie duel.
Unfortunately, there are some unethical players on this site and you will see many threads on various tactics that they employ. What can you do about it- nothing - or maybe have Adam throw up the apple.🙁 There always has been unethical people in this world, always will be.

Ok I can understand that 🙄 but why drop from like 1800!! for a rookie duel? Ok so you go back up to 1250 (or whatever) but whhyyyyy!??!?! 😞

What's to gain? Easy opponents? Inflated ego!??! Can see how but not why!??!

Can anyone enlighten me? Not sure I should mention nam ...[text shortened]... ly that he was previously 1900+ !! Why drop down to a rookie duel!??!

I am in exactley the same position you find yourself in, only in the 1500-1599 3x3. The result will be the same, I will lose both games, and with it the opportunity that i might, just might have had a chance of winning a tournament.

Yes it is annoying, but there is not much I or you can do about it. For the record, the opponent in question is a desent person, I do not think that in this case they had purposly dropped their rating just to enter this competition (I agree some do for all the reasons you highlighted). They just left the site for a period of time.

Ratings are an odd thing, when good players have a low or developing ranking better players will not play them as they are scared of lossing rating points themselves, while they themselves seem more than happy to beat up lower ranked players for "easy" points. This would be fine but for the real odd complexion, when these players then get up to a 1600 plus rating they no longer seem too happy to continue to play the weaker players on a regular basis.

Andrew