Ok so everything old is new again. Yes complaining about ties in Duel is almost a trope; but frankly almost nothing aboiut FT frustrates nme more than the effect the ties have on my experience with Duel. You can say that it obviously has not stopped me from playing over 30000 games and you would be right. Nonetheless chests need to be lightended and cents need to be added even if it is a few years late. So bear wiuth me I actually have a small suggestion at the end.

1. Ties almost always happen ONLY when both players score above 970 and they increase when the scores are in the 980's. While seemingly paradoxical, the logic is not that complicated. As the range of scores narrow the unique numbers shrink. There are over 8B people alive and only 366 days to be born so the chance of running into people with your birthday are pretty good. Whe the qauestions are easy and everyone ges the right more people are being "born" on the same numbers to mix metaphors.

2. To fully understand however why so many ties happen, frankly I would need to understand the matching algorithim better (and coincidentally have kept up with my college calulus to have a clue what the math is about anyway). I accept that I am more likely to draw from a smaller pool of players (and coincidentally that it IS random and not the result of someone getting a perverse enjoyment deciding who should get the 1000/999 loss today...). I can accept that many of these players fr my draw pool (such as Colin-nyc) while not getting more questions correct are simply faster or more to the point equally fast.

3. Total win calculations could include some credit for ties but here the crux becomes clear. Ties are for all intents LOSSES or as stated by a few players simply "not wins". Would I have liked to got half credit for my 100 or a ties (yes only 21 since the badgelet but we have memories). In the grand scheme even 50/100 extra wins are not real dent in the 30,000 or s needed to get the last dino.

4. Where my greater peeve lies is in the effect ties have on the MONTHY win percentage badge. For me the sysyphisian task is to get the 70% win total. Here is where the tie is even more impactful. The difference between 69.xxx and 70% can come down to one game. Thus it becomes relevant to consider whether the tie is a LOSS or a NOT WIN. The current system makes the tie a LOSS. It counts in the denominator as a game played and offers no benefit to the numerator.

5. If the tie was a NOT WIN or a NO HARM/NO BENEFIT then the tie should be deducted from the demoninator of the monthly and have it truly be a nonfactor. However this many years ionto the game changing a calculation like that for a really small group of players who might be effected is not reasonable.

6. After much soul searching (both about the issue and why I care enough about the topic to call it soul-searching) I have narrowed my suggestion to adding a line in the mothly duel badge page to say (perhaps with less vitriol) "For purposes of this badge ties are considered losses to both person's playing. Either play faster or slower if you dont like the outcome."😢

Ah that does feel better.... wait another tie that is 3 days in a row.. aaarghh.

Dear Adam, for the Monthly Duel tiers all games are considered - even those that (for some reason or other) you don't play. So trying for the 70% wins means you need (in a month with 30 days) 70% wins on 450 games, this is 326. It doesn't matter if you lose a game, tie a game or even don't play a game - you only get credit for an effective win.