Accommodating @Dwyrin

In a recent Back To Basics video, Dwyrin mentioned that he has trouble getting opponents on OGS because they’re reluctant to play unranked games, which he has to stick to because he doesn’t want to rank up past the ideal 1k level for his Basics series and have to constantly create new accounts, which he fears would “piss off the OGS people.”

Can we reach out to him to assure him that this would be fine? (It would be fine, right?) Or maybe we can let him know that at any time, he can ask a mod to reset his account to 1k and they’ll be happy to do it.

It might be worth letting other Go content creators know we’d welcome them here, too.

As much as I enjoy dwyrin’s videos (I do) you also have to wonder if him being like a 5-6 dan but playing as a kyu player also would piss off some OGS players. I can definitely imagine it annoying at least some people if they found out.

I do understand the nature of his videos. He does seem to try to be self aware and if he thinks a 1kyu or 7kyu etc shouldn’t know such a sequence or play something with complicated reading he does try to avoid it.

It seems to make sense though that unranked games should be the fair way to go, even if they’re less likely to be accepted.

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I assume it could, because obviously you play games with others around your rank to have close tight exciting games, you know if you’re 1 kyu and play another 1 kyu that in the optimal outcome he / she should be around your skill level, that is what ranking is for.

Now, why is dwyrin not simply making a dan account / playing with his account and unranked, and invites kyu players to join? Then he would find people who are looking not for a tight exciting game, but a crushing defeat and maybe valuable lecture on top of that?

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I believe he has found that players play differently when they know they’re playing him / playing on stream than when they think they’re just playing some anonymous kyu.

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It’s just easier to make it seem as if what you’re doing works when you’re sandbagging. I would have no trouble to get an unranked game, smurf account or otherwise.

However, if you’re streaming, chances are people are going to snipe you, and playing ‘Asian’ accounts (with long game histories) on ‘Asian’ servers just minimizes those odds.

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I did actually reach out to him a very long time ago in the sense to just ask if he would like banners for his OGS streams or some other help, and the response - while polite - seemed very uninterested in further communication. Thus I am kind of disinclined to bother with unrequested messages.

I like to think we are pretty easy to find if he really wanted to ask. :man_shrugging:

Anyone in particular comes to mind? :slight_smile:

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Out of curiosity do we know if Dwyrin applies the same thinking to the other servers? Does he play unranked on those as well?

I tend to agree with Shinuito that doing so solves a lot of potential problems.

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While it indeed solves some problems, I am inclined to thint that unranked games can really be harder to get. And some players also use those to just kind of unwind and not take them seriously or to test out crazy moves or experimental openings, which might sort of “ruin” the video potential sometimes… I guess there is no ideal solution :smiley:

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Very true - there really is not an ideal situation.

As we’ve discussed within the moderator team - what Dwyrin does is valuable enough to be supported even though it does bring some potential issues from time to time.

(And just a brief edit to point out that:

this is simply not possible. Short of anoek hacking the database, no-one can adjust ranks AFAIK.)

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Oh! I didn’t realize that. I could swear that I was once in a discussion about the problem of strong players that lose tons of rating points through massive timeouts (perhaps due to some life event that distracts them for a stretch) and then have to climb back up by playing lots of one-sided games with unsuspecting weaker players. I thought that in that discussion, someone on the OGS team said they should just ask a mod to adjust their rank back up for them.

Not a thing? False memory? Maybe once possible but no longer?

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Was possible, but isn’t possible anymore since OGS moved to Glicko2 rating system.

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Just sayin'.
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He plays ranked games on some servers, but I don’t know if all games are ranked. I remembering him “complaining”, that he has many 6d accounts on several servers because his basic accounts are ranking up.

I think the main problem would be how fast OGS accounts rank up compared to all other servers (huge plus for us, and legitimate ranked users, no so good for Dwyrin and other teachers attempting to emulate a certain anonymous strength.

Much like in Go, it is all about exchanges… you need to give up some things to gain the things you want.

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The rating system should put them on the rank they emulate. It’s only a problem if they want to emulate a rank some ranks higher than they want to play against.

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This is - theoretically - a fantastic point.

It takes the argument to it’s conclusion: “The teacher is playing as if they are 1k, so they should end up ranked at 1k”.

And when viewed this way, it points at the obvious flaw in the argument, which is that the teacher plays somewhat as if they are 1k, but they don’t actually lose as often as a 1k.

And I imagine this is partly a pride thing - and indeed maybe justified, because who wants to learn from a teacher who loses half the time - but also a practical thing. If you are teaching how to play solidly and well, you need to teach that throughout the game, not suddenly be in a losing position from which it is hard to teach “the basics”.

Conlusion: this is theoretically true if you take the argument about how “this works” at face value, but it doesn’t hold up in the face of how this really works.

(“This” being teachers teaching us using live games).

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Professional sandbagging huh saltbaggin more like, enjoys collecting the tears of the weak in a bag till enough salt is made for resale.

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Surely nobody would accuse kind-hearted Dwyrin of being salty! :open_mouth:

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The cruelest of capitalists, the ones that prey on the weak and stupid.

And no, his opponents are the salt mines

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