MG Tournament - Taking the P***

[vinylweatherman]

Here is a screenshot from the latest Fortune Lounge Tournament.

20 Minutes of play,


Starting with 150,000 coins


What a complete piss take! (Although, it was a "free" tournament for depositing into the casino during the week).

This would entail the play of 2000 spins in 20 Minutes, or a rate of 6000 per hour. This is nearly 10x the maximum speed for NORMAL Tomb Raider, and the tournament version comes nowhere near this.

Why bother with rebuys for more coins in other tournaments, this shows that this whole idea of "coins to play" is a cynical stunt thought up by MG to get players to part with more and more money for endless continues and rebuys, all of which are clearly unnecessary if they can have a tournament with a huge wad of coins and a single, hopelessly short, session to play them in. With 150,000 coins, there is ZERO opportunity for "strategy", it's a case of whipping out the Cray II supercomputer, and the pneumatic mouse

 

[RobWin]

Here is a screenshot from the latest Fortune Lounge Tournament.

20 Minutes of play,


Starting with 150,000 coins


What a complete piss take! (Although, it was a "free" tournament for depositing into the casino during the week).

This would entail the play of 2000 spins in 20 Minutes, or a rate of 6000 per hour. This is nearly 10x the maximum speed for NORMAL Tomb Raider, and the tournament version comes nowhere near this.

Why bother with rebuys for more coins in other tournaments, this shows that this whole idea of "coins to play" is a cynical stunt thought up by MG to get players to part with more and more money for endless continues and rebuys, all of which are clearly unnecessary if they can have a tournament with a huge wad of coins and a single, hopelessly short, session to play them in. With 150,000 coins, there is ZERO opportunity for "strategy", it's a case of whipping out the Cray II supercomputer, and the pneumatic mouse

Well you did a lot better in that Tournament than I did vinyl, I came in somewhere in the 200's I believe.....

I agree with you though on the amount of credits they give you to start with...its ridiculous, theres no way in hell anyone could even come close to playing those...I have a T3 line connection and 4.0 Gig of ram but it can not move any faster that their servers let it...

 

[Simmo!]

...this shows that this whole idea of "coins to play" is a cynical stunt thought up by MG to get players to part with more and more money for endless continues and rebuys...

Agree. That is shocking behaviour for a charity


Seriously though, why does a high number of coins matter? I don't get it? 5000 coins on the freerolls isn't enough...always have 30-40 seconds spare if i don't hit the free spins. I'd much rather have more than enough then less than enough.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Agree. That is shocking behaviour for a charity


Seriously though, why does a high number of coins matter? I don't get it? 5000 coins on the freerolls isn't enough...always have 30-40 seconds spare if i don't hit the free spins. I'd much rather have more than enough then less than enough.

It's not just more than enough, it is just so over the top.
If the number of coins does not matter, why have coins at all, why not just a timer.
Why can't we have an end to all the rebuys that inflate the cover price of a tournament to some 6x the initial amount. They could be more honest and just give one big playing session and a single round of play for the set price. "Free" tournaments would also really BE free, as advertised.

Even THIS event was not strictly free, as a deposit and play was required to gain an entry. It would be far better to do away with coins altogether, as well as the pretence that their is ANY "strategy" other than press spin as quickly as possible.

Oddly enough, when these tournaments first started, the slots ran a good deal faster than they do now, and it was easy to use all the coins if there were no bonus rounds. Now, not only do the games run slower, but there are communication holdups way above the level of the normal problems with Microgaming casinos. This forum has been awash with many complaints about other technical problems with these tournaments.

When Microgaming publish audited payout figures for these, I will be willing to believe they offer a good deal, but the fact that Microgaming, always known for making audited payout figures available, resist publishing figures for prizes paid as a percentage of tournament participation revenue, leads me to believe they offer a far worse deal than the lobby slots which generally offer 95%.

In the end, I came 18th, and after this screenshot I had mainly naked spins for the last 4 minutes of play, with a couple of Idol bonus rounds.

25,000 coins would have been enough to ensure ALL players were able to play for the full 20 Minutes. Maybe they mistook Tomb Raider for Loaded when they allocated the coins.

 

[Nifty29]

Im a bit annoyed with the MG tournaments - I just cant seem to do any good at all, and yet the same people seem to be in the top 10-15 very often.

Is there something I am missing?? Or am I just very unlucky and they are very lucky??

Vinyl- I know you do pretty well as a rule....and I notice you stated something about 'strategy'....dont you just keep betting max in these tournies (given theres no point having coins left)??

*sigh* - I JUST WANNA WIN ONE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

 

[Rusty]

Hard to argue with VWM (as usual) if a tournie is advertised as a freeroll then that is what it should be.
If it is a buy in tournie then as long as it is a level playing field we are just arguing about the logistics.
IMO slot tournaments are fine as promotional tools but after that I fail to see their value.

 

[SlotsWizard]

I stopped playing these stupid things about a month ago, and since then my blood pressure has improved dramatically.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Im a bit annoyed with the MG tournaments - I just cant seem to do any good at all, and yet the same people seem to be in the top 10-15 very often.

Is there something I am missing?? Or am I just very unlucky and they are very lucky??

Vinyl- I know you do pretty well as a rule....and I notice you stated something about 'strategy'....dont you just keep betting max in these tournies (given theres no point having coins left)??

*sigh* - I JUST WANNA WIN ONE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!

I used to do well, then MG "did something" to the tournament servers, and at the same time all MG casinos offering them had to redownload the tournament slots all over again. That same weekend, there were such severe technical issues with the tournaments that operators had to apologise, and some tournaments were extended. Since then, it has been all downhill, and I seem to have prolonged spells of naked spins on one continue to offset any good spell I have on another, and my scores on the weekender seem to have very little variance at all. The top players keep on hitting 50,000 to 60,000+ on the same number of coins that I can never get outside the range 25,000 to 45,000 on. To get those high scores, the slot has to play well throughout, and this just does not seem to happen for the tournament version.

This time, I had 22,000 from my first couple of rounds, but the other 4 only added a further 10,000 or so, as there were long spells of completely naked spins with only isolated wins. There ARE no really high payouts on Tomb Raider, unlike Thunderstruck, mainly because the second highest win only pays 2500 coins, and not 7,500 coins as on Thunderstruck. With such a flat game, it seems odd that the top scores are so high week in and week out. Since pretty much everybody uses all coins, it can't be to do with speed.

Last weekend, I hit a special pattern in the free spins, rarer than wild hammers on Thunderstruck, yet it paid a mere 15,000 coins, and still only had me at 8th place. Such a hit on Thunderstruck (wild hammers on free spins) pretty much guarantees first place due to the size of the payout, some 22,500 coins.

The ONLY strategy is to bet the max each spin, and spin as fast as possible, any other strategy will leave more coins unused than necessary. Each session has to be played in one go, so you can't even log off when the slot gives a few naked spins as one might do on the lobby games, perhaps coming back later.

 

[cheekymonkey]

I used to do well, then MG "did something" to the tournament servers, and at the same time all MG casinos offering them had to redownload the tournament slots all over again. That same weekend, there were such severe technical issues with the tournaments that operators had to apologise, and some tournaments were extended. Since then, it has been all downhill, and I seem to have prolonged spells of naked spins on one continue to offset any good spell I have on another, and my scores on the weekender seem to have very little variance at all. The top players keep on hitting 50,000 to 60,000+ on the same number of coins that I can never get outside the range 25,000 to 45,000 on. To get those high scores, the slot has to play well throughout, and this just does not seem to happen for the tournament version.

This time, I had 22,000 from my first couple of rounds, but the other 4 only added a further 10,000 or so, as there were long spells of completely naked spins with only isolated wins. There ARE no really high payouts on Tomb Raider, unlike Thunderstruck, mainly because the second highest win only pays 2500 coins, and not 7,500 coins as on Thunderstruck. With such a flat game, it seems odd that the top scores are so high week in and week out. Since pretty much everybody uses all coins, it can't be to do with speed.

Last weekend, I hit a special pattern in the free spins, rarer than wild hammers on Thunderstruck, yet it paid a mere 15,000 coins, and still only had me at 8th place. Such a hit on Thunderstruck (wild hammers on free spins) pretty much guarantees first place due to the size of the payout, some 22,500 coins.

The ONLY strategy is to bet the max each spin, and spin as fast as possible, any other strategy will leave more coins unused than necessary. Each session has to be played in one go, so you can't even log off when the slot gives a few naked spins as one might do on the lobby games, perhaps coming back later.

I thought Eliot Jacobson summed tournies up here very well (Class II game characteristics):

Link Outdated / Removed

I have always assumed that in a tourney, there will always be 1 player (or maybe 2 or maximum 3) who will hit the 5 wilds or 5 scatters in a free spins round to determine the winner.

i.e - The tourney will identify 1 winner as soon as they have entered, and whoever else has entered is just playing and will not win as the winner has already been 'chosen'.

Or maybe I'm just being silly?

 

[LOOKAWAY]

Hi i have to agree and disagree as the tournaments are free if you dont rebuy.
but i hate the rebuys also like you guys.

And simmo what kind off cp are you running there?

If i dont hit a bonus round or free spins on tomb raider ill have 20 secs left
If i dont hit free spins on thunder struck i will have anyware between 300-500coins left, This would be on the 5000 coin tourns.

I have to say i have had alot off luck in the $200@$50 tourns but none at all on the $20k big weekender as i have never come close to the money to even think off doin a rebuy. I play by the name off TIM7777.

Also i think that simmo must have a realy good cp which is all his doin and deserves the extra play time thats how the world works right.
My cp isnt all that bad at all so its hard on me because having an extra 40 secs on me in the $20k big weekender even if bonus rounds or a free spin round is won would mean that you could see a whloe free spin round more than me. Noteing that my free spin rounds take about 40 secs on average.

But im not complaining as i do ok anyway even if im up against it.

I used to think that it was the closer you lived to the servers the quicker your play would be.

 

[Simmo!]

And simmo what kind off cp are you running there?

Also i think that simmo must have a realy good cp which is all his doin and deserves the extra play time thats how the world works right.

1.6Ghz Athlon, 1024mb ram.

There's a clue to better performance around here if you look hard enough

 

[Rusty]

If you have a lower spec PC then simply lower your screen resolution to get a faster game also drop the colour from 32 to 16bit.
The graphics card is more important than CPU so if you only have intergrated graphics you could consider buying a graphics card.
You do not need anything special like you would for a video game.A card under 50 would be ample.
A 1.6 Athlon is considered low end these Days but it will run MG fine with a reasonable graphics solution.

 

[steinhaug]

Link Outdated / Removed

I have always assumed that in a tourney, there will always be 1 player (or maybe 2 or maximum 3) who will hit the 5 wilds or 5 scatters in a free spins round to determine the winner.

i.e - The tourney will identify 1 winner as soon as they have entered, and whoever else has entered is just playing and will not win as the winner has already been 'chosen'.

Also VWM said:
"Microgaming, always known for making audited payout figures available, resist publishing figures for prizes paid as a percentage of tournament participation revenue, leads me to believe they offer a far worse deal than the lobby slots which generally offer 95%."

How can this be possible on a truly random slot?

 

[LOOKAWAY]

Hi thanks guys i actualy have a realy good video card because i bought it for video games but im lacking in ram i was going to buy 1gb off ram.

I used to play video games on my old cp but started gambling online for along time, Then i bought a new cp nothing special because i only had online gambling in mind and bought a video game and it would not work propely because the new video games are so high end in comparison to the older games. So i got a video card and was goin to get some ram but gave up on the whole gaming thing im old now and lacking in gaming skills these days its just not like the old days.

But i will try what you said about switching to 16bit and lowering the resolution thanks.

 

[Nifty29]

If you have a lower spec PC then simply lower your screen resolution to get a faster game also drop the colour from 32 to 16bit.
The graphics card is more important than CPU so if you only have intergrated graphics you could consider buying a graphics card.
You do not need anything special like you would for a video game.A card under 50 would be ample.
A 1.6 Athlon is considered low end these Days but it will run MG fine with a reasonable graphics solution.

Good advice.

Also, turn off the sound - it makes a huge difference

 

[vinylweatherman]

Don't waste time and money, since Microgaming "did something" to the tournament servers, there is no improvement gained by getting a faster PC, better graphics card, or moving house to be closer to the servers.

If the tournament server detects a "souped up PC", it degrades it's response time to compensate. It is a crude piece of blocking software that only has two states, and when the disabler is triggered it inserts a 5 second delay in the response from the tournament server.

There is a "secret" experiment that 100% proves this is an intentional fudge at the server end, and not just internet traffic. With the experiment NOT in place, NO spins are delayed, but with the experiment running, you get two or three spins, followed by EVERY SINGLE SPIN having the 5 to 7 second delay inserted. The additional 2 seconds are due to the actual delay caused by communication between the server and the player.
Applying this "experiment" also means that even the shittiest PC can play these tournaments as well as the very latest kit, without the need to buy graphics cards, RAM, fast broadband, or a new house in Canada.


As for my comment about these being a bad deal compared to the 95% on the slots. This has nothing to do with how the slots pay, they still pay 95%, however, the prizes have NOTHING TO DO with the payout percentage of the tournament game, but all to do with how much participants have spent entering, continuing, and rebuying, and the total prize pool as a percentage of this figure.

For example, if $30,000 in total was spent by the 600 or so players in the weekender, the total pool of $20,000 paid in prizes would represent a tournament return of only 66%, even though Tomb Raider itself paid around 95% of the total coins played as "winbox" credits.

 

[RobWin]

=vinylweatherman;210927]Don't waste time and money, since Microgaming "did something" to the tournament servers, there is no improvement gained by getting a faster PC, better graphics card, or moving house to be closer to the servers.

If the tournament server detects a "souped up PC", it degrades it's response time to compensate. It is a crude piece of blocking software that only has two states, and when the disabler is triggered it inserts a 5 second delay in the response from the tournament server.

There is a "secret" experiment that 100% proves this is an intentional fudge at the server end, and not just internet traffic. With the experiment NOT in place, NO spins are delayed, but with the experiment running, you get two or three spins, followed by EVERY SINGLE SPIN having the 5 to 7 second delay inserted. The additional 2 seconds are due to the actual delay caused by communication between the server and the player.
Applying this "experiment" also means that even the shittiest PC can play these tournaments as well as the very latest kit, without the need to buy graphics cards, RAM, fast broadband, or a new house in Canada.

Exactly, great point Vinyl, just as I said in post #2, I have a T3 line connection and 4.0 Gig of ram but it can not move any faster that their servers let it...

 

[vinylweatherman]

Exactly, great point Vinyl, just as I said in post #2, I have a T3 line connection and 4.0 Gig of ram but it can not move any faster that their servers let it...

What I find more damning, is the fact that the casinos feel it is necessary to LIE about this addition to the tournament servers. When it was installed, it went pear shaped, and months of technical problems with the tournaments followed. Although there were excuses and apologies, the longer delays were always passed off as being the fault of the PLAYER, their PC or their ISP.
I am sure some players wasted time and money trying to fix a problem that didn't exist, and without my "experiment", the deliberate delays really DO look like it is just internet traffic, poor connection speed, or someone just nicked your graphics card over that weekend

I too wasted some time, but I soon discovered the truth after designing and running the "experiment" on my brand new and rather fast PC, where the degradation was VERY MARKED INDEED from experiences before the MG "upgrade" to the tournaments.

If you can hit one spin every 4 seconds, you are at, or very near, to maximum possible performance. Bonus rounds are slower, since it has to show you each and every win, and you can't spin off using the "spin" button as you can after winning in normal play. This makes bonus rounds run far slower than 4 seconds per spin, unless they are naked spins with no wins to show.
Who really gives a damn about being shown each win when they are playing a timed event anyway!!!

 

[RobWin]

What I find more damning, is the fact that the casinos feel it is necessary to LIE about this addition to the tournament servers. When it was installed, it went pear shaped, and months of technical problems with the tournaments followed. Although there were excuses and apologies, the longer delays were always passed off as being the fault of the PLAYER, their PC or their ISP.

Yea exactly, these were the same lame ass BS excuses they gave me also

I am sure some players wasted time and money trying to fix a problem that didn't exist, and without my "experiment", the deliberate delays really DO look like it is just internet traffic, poor connection speed, or someone just nicked your graphics card over that weekend

Yea that's what I thought at first too, but since I had recently had a supercomputer custom built for me with the most, best, latest and greatest of everything I knew this was not the case

I too wasted some time, but I soon discovered the truth after designing and running the "experiment" on my brand new and rather fast PC, where the degradation was VERY MARKED INDEED from experiences before the MG "upgrade" to the tournaments.

I also ran experiments, probably somewhat similar to yours and found the same thing happening at "Their Servers" but of course MG would never admit that

If you can hit one spin every 4 seconds, you are at, or very near, to maximum possible performance.

That has also been the best I have consistently been able to achieve with the exception of around 3 sec's sometimes during the week

Bonus rounds are slower, since it has to show you each and every win, and you can't spin off using the "spin" button as you can after winning in normal play. This makes bonus rounds run far slower than 4 seconds per spin, unless they are naked spins with no wins to show.Who really gives a damn about being shown each win when they are playing a timed event anyway!!!

Yea, the bonus rounds are a killer, if you get in them too often you might as well hang it up, because you are not going to be nowhere near the top five finishers

 

[footdr]

AND ANOTHER THING.....

This happens to me ALOT:

on free play tourneys: I get the bonus rounds and free spins just before times up so that if I want to play the free spins or bonus round I would have to pay to continue!!! Seems to happen all to frequently

Plus, I still think the only fair tournaments would be those that are not timed but rather give you X amount of credits and once those are played you either quit or have option to continue as you do now.

Then there is no problem with different computers and connections.

Apparently, that would be too fair, because they will not even consider it! Leads me to believe the way they are doing it is somehow compromised.

 

[RobWin]

This happens to me ALOT:

on free play tourneys: I get the bonus rounds and free spins just before times up so that if I want to play the free spins or bonus round I would have to pay to continue!!! Seems to happen all to frequently
Plus, I still think the only fair tournaments would be those that are not timed but rather give you X amount of credits and once those are played you either quit or have option to continue as you do now.

Then there is no problem with different computers and connections.

Apparently, that would be too fair, because they will not even consider it! Leads me to believe the way they are doing it is somehow compromised.

I couldn't count the times that this happens...way, way too many...

 

[venetian]

After playing the tournaments every day and only winning $6.00 I finally won something good. $60! It's not the weekender but I feel like if I could do it once then it is possible to do it again. Don't pee on my parade anyone as I live in the US and can't deposit. I'm thrilled!!!!!

 

[brianzz]

You all will probably be happy to hear that some MG tournaments are now adding a portion of the rebuys into the payout of the tournament, in beta anyway. I was over at All Jackpots a little bit ago and they had a $400 free roll and the prizes increased as the tournament progressed.

 

[RobWin]

After playing the tournaments every day and only winning $6.00 I finally won something good. $60! It's not the weekender but I feel like if I could do it once then it is possible to do it again. Don't pee on my parade anyone as I live in the US and can't deposit. I'm thrilled!!!!!

WTG venetian !! That's the best I have seen on their free tournaments...

Hey on another note, there are still lots of ways for US players to deposit and play....trust me...

 

[vinylweatherman]

You all will probably be happy to hear that some MG tournaments are now adding a portion of the rebuys into the payout of the tournament, in beta anyway. I was over at All Jackpots a little bit ago and they had a $400 free roll and the prizes increased as the tournament progressed.

The lies continue, this is not a "new feature", this was possible when these tournaments were first released last year, It is that casinos CHOSE not to do this because there was more profit in keeping 100% of the rebuys.

Tournaments that DO add rebuys to the pool are going to be more popular, with players changing their mind and playing more if they see the prize pool growing all the time.
All Jackpots have often run a few of these special tournaments, as have Royal Vegas. I believe that Grand Bay have just introduced loyalty tournaments, with the prizes based on the player's status (Ace gets $400, King $200, etc.) I have not recently fired up Grand Bay to check on how "free" these tournaments really are, but they would be another opportunity for US players who have problems making deposits and withdrawals.