The higher the League the slower!

[Tenrabbits]

Something I've noticed - I'm in Masters now, and have been pretty steadily winning 4 out of 5 matches since Clever. I've noticed though that the higher the league I'm in, the slower games I'm winning go. So whereas in Clever I'd have probably won a game sometimes in 20 - 30 mins, the higher the rank I've gone up, the more likely the opposing player will start waiting 1 or 2 days between moves if their position looks bad. As I play pretty quickly it means that I have a load of potentially winning games sitting, and the losing ones are more frequent now! When I lose one I start another, so inevitably if I'm winning that one - no moves for ages again!

The end result is I now stall my losing games until I finish winning ones, which I hate when it's done to me! Arrrggh! I had no real choice though as I ended up with a load of games sitting a move or two away from winning, and my losses were racking up as I kept playing them.

[GoHeat 3]

It's actually better to take the losses first and then the wins.

[Tenrabbits]

Yeah but that doesn't work as my slots fill up. So say I start twenty games and I'm winning in ten of them and losing in ten, then the ten I'm winning grind to a halt, whereas the losing ones I complete. So I've just lost ten in a row. I then start ten more, by the law of averages I'll lose some of them too, and more slots for the winning games will be used up. The end result is I can't play until some of the winning games are finished, as otherwise I'd keep losing over and over, and anyway the games I start will be against someone with a lower hidden rating (as I'm losing so much)!

[aaronINdayton]

Just stop losing

[TheQwertiest]

hahaha exactly what i thought xD

[EkoFox]

Try looking at it this way:
(Note this is demonstrative, obviously you cant have half or a quarter of a game)
Assume for every two games you start, one stalls because you are about to win, and the other you lose.
Start 20 Games, Lose 10, 10 Stall
Start 10 New Games, Lose 5, 5 Stall
Start 5 New Games, Lose 2.5, 2.5 Stall
Start 2.5 New Games, Lose 1.25, 1.25 Stall
Start 1.25 New Games, Lose .75, .75 Stall
...

Now you have 19.5 Games you "Won" but are stalled, and you just lost 19.5. You may have lost ~20 games in a row, but you also won ~20 games, therefore, the law of averages is still on your side

[Tenrabbits]

Haha! Believe me if I was able to win all my games that would be great! I can't see myself making Super Titan anytime soon at this rate though.. I'm not quite as bad as half and half wins/losses mind you!

Eko, think about it this way, if a winning game takes 10 days, and a losing game takes 2, I'm always going to be losing more than winning.

[EkoFox]

Eventually your queue will be filled with "wins" and you can't make any more losing games

[Gf!sh]

Let's look at it the same way then, but with 80% win rate:

Start 20 Games, Lose 4, 16 Stall
Start 4 New Games, Lose 0,8; 3,2 Stall
Start 0,8 New Games, Lose 0,16; 0,64 Stall

Total stalled wins: 19,84; Total loss: 4,96. This is STILL an 80% win rate, just a bit delayed, which is even better.

I actually sometimes stall winning games for this reason.

[Ser Purple Wolf]

I never stall. I try to play all my games at least twice a day.

My win/loss feels like 50%
I went on 11 win streak. Top 200
7 loss streak.
On 4 win streak right now.

I usually go on sprees winning and losing with the exceptional random game that defies the streak