Sandbagging accidentally

[daniel_the_smith]

I let my KGS account expire, and I was trying to get it re-rated. (man it's hard to get a game when you have no rating!) So I played some fast/blitz games a couple days ago to speed the process along. I was tired and still on tilt from not doing as well as I wanted at a tournament on saturday, and managed to play my account down to 7k?.

Last night I played twice, completely demolishing some poor 6k and 5k (i.e. triple-digit margins if they hadn't resigned). Anyway, I feel bad now. It says I'm aga 1k in my user info, so it's not like I'm hiding it--but I wasn't advertising it, either, for fear no one would play me.

Actually the 5k could have won his game. The 6k I do feel bad for though. In real life I would pull punches but that's risky when the clock is ticking.

Hopefully another few wins will put me into the range where people have a legitimate chance against me... and hopefully I will crush them, too.

[fwiffo]

Eh, not sure what else you can do. Sandbaggers are a bigger problem at beginner levels because it can be humiliating for new players to be crushed by someone who they think is supposed to be about the same strength as them. And they haven't been playing long enough to recognize a stronger player or a sandbagger. It's the kind of humiliation that can make them not want to play. A 6 kyu has been playing long enough to know when they've been sandbagged and not get too discouraged by it. Anyhow, they should be experienced enough to know what the ? in your rank means and how hard it can be sometimes to get a good starting rank on a new account.

[kirkmc]

I let my KGS account expire, and I was trying to get it re-rated. (man it's hard to get a game when you have no rating!) So I played some fast/blitz games a couple days ago to speed the process along. I was tired and still on tilt from not doing as well as I wanted at a tournament on saturday, and managed to play my account down to 7k?.

Last night I played twice, completely demolishing some poor 6k and 5k (i.e. triple-digit margins if they hadn't resigned). Anyway, I feel bad now. It says I'm aga 1k in my user info, so it's not like I'm hiding it--but I wasn't advertising it, either, for fear no one would play me.

Actually the 5k could have won his game. The 6k I do feel bad for though. In real life I would pull punches but that's risky when the clock is ticking.

Hopefully another few wins will put me into the range where people have a legitimate chance against me... and hopefully I will crush them, too.

Um, seriously, you just put in your info when you post a game that your real rank is around whatever, and you accept games as if that is your rank. Is that hard to do?

[daniel_the_smith]

I never like it when other people try to give me more stones than the system says than should, so I don't do that. (That is, in general I trust what KGS says their rank is more than what they say their rank is.)

[BaghwanB]

Eh, this isn't any big sin. I'd just think of it as a few games you'll play until your rating reflects your ability more closely. You wouldn't be the first or the last person to be playing with an inaccurate rating on KGS. I'd say advertising your actual rank would be nice, but far from needed.

Bruce "Aesthetic Ethicist" Young

[kirkmc]

I never like it when other people try to give me more stones than the system says than should, so I don't do that. (That is, in general I trust what KGS says their rank is more than what they say their rank is.)

But you knew yours was off, and now you're paying the price, wracked with guilt. You'll have trouble sleeping, and you'll have dreams of walking go stones until you atone.

[freegame]

play some bot's to get back to your "normal"rank.

bots don't care about sandbagging

[Solomon]

I don't consider this to be sandbagging. Malicious intent is the major factor behind sandbagging (imo), which is clearly not the case here - you just had to do what you had to do.

[daniel_the_smith]

But you knew yours was off, and now you're paying the price, wracked with guilt. You'll have trouble sleeping, and you'll have dreams of walking go stones until you atone.

Hahaha, I don't think I'm quite to "wracked," more like just past "twinged."

[mdobbins]

I let my KGS account expire, and I was trying to get it re-rated. (man it's hard to get a game when you have no rating!) So I played some fast/blitz games a couple days ago to speed the process along. I was tired and still on tilt from not doing as well as I wanted at a tournament on saturday, and managed to play my account down to 7k?.

Last night I played twice, completely demolishing some poor 6k and 5k (i.e. triple-digit margins if they hadn't resigned). Anyway, I feel bad now. It says I'm aga 1k in my user info, so it's not like I'm hiding it--but I wasn't advertising it, either, for fear no one would play me.

Actually the 5k could have won his game. The 6k I do feel bad for though. In real life I would pull punches but that's risky when the clock is ticking.

Hopefully another few wins will put me into the range where people have a legitimate chance against me... and hopefully I will crush them, too.

Once you see that you are ahead, stop punishing your opponent. Just play moves that progress the game to the end as quickly as possible, I mean simple solid moves w/o trying to complicate things. This will help you get better at winning a won game, increase your positional understanding and not embarrass the weaker player with a huge slaughter. You don't have to worry about pulling your punches if you give your opponent nothing weak to attack.

[Kirby]

Don't feel bad about it. A lot of KGS users don't play weaker or ? mark players, so such games are inevitable... Now the key is to keep winning once you get past 1k. :-p

[runaway]

Darn, if only I had come by to get thrashed. If it was me, I would even do a rematch.

Don't worry too much Daniel, people at this stage should be happy to face a strong opponent.

[schultz]

I don't think you have too much to worry about. Anybody who's going to get upset is taking themselves way to seriously. And since you're not doing it on purpose, not much else you can do until you get your rank up. And people shouldn't really have to worry about their rank because you should be able to get yourself back up to the appropriate rank before too long.

[TMark]

I have sometimes made new accounts on KGS and, when I am getting my rating up towards my "normal" level, I have played similar games. I now apologise beforehand, and give some teaching afterwards. Don't lose sleep over it; it was not deliberate.

Best wishes.

[Gene]

Don't know what's the big deal with sandbagging. People sometimes so desperately looking for a game with stronger player (me including) and in this case you get it for free. Looks more like a blessing than a curse to me.