Another idea for a new incentive in the next game: How about if two players are eliminated on different turns, the one who stayed in the game longer gets a higher final ranking?
So non-eliminated players are ranked by score at the end of the game (with possibly some ties), and eliminated players are ranked by when they were eliminated (with possibly some ties). Being eliminated is of course considered worse than not being eliminated.
(Perhaps the resign/draw mechanic needs to be somewhat modified, something like a player can suggest a ranking of the players (excluding already eliminated players, which are automatically at the bottom), and if all non-eliminated players agree on that ranking, the game can be ended directly. Thus we avoid having to play on in a clearly decided position.)
In this position, this means that both yellow and black both have a clear goal, despite having only a few stones each on the board: they have to try to stay on the board longer than the other.
What do you all think of this? I’m especially interested in what @李建澔2 and @Haze_with_a_Z think about it, since you know what it feels like to play in a board position like this. My hope is that this incentive aligns with what you were doing naturally anyways.
Edit: If any non-players want to add their opinions, please quote this post and respond in this thread. I just made this post here since I wanted to take the current board position as an example.