Coin Toss: Not fair?

[MVNLA2]

@larry @whiteasice — Question for both of you: Are you counting tosses for unranked battles (used to get a new set of opponents) as well as ranked battles?

@whiteasice — What platform are you playing on and what game version?
Until you have better luck, I would avoid any form of gambling. : D

[burbman]

The reason I asked about v. 1.2.3 is that according to the update log here in the nest, Epic goes from v.1.2.1 on Feb 17 to v.1.2.4 on Feb 18. Maybe 1.2.3 came out for some devices??? What device do you play on @whiteasice?

[KerrAvon]

@burbman There are some updates not listed in the main post of the log. You will have to look at individual posts to see records for some of these (usually from angryjohnny). There were indeed updates 1.21 (introducing the arena – in Dec last year?), 1.23 and 1.24. I couldn’t find anything on 1.2.2.

As killerkea said, this is probably down to the specific device whiteasice plays EPIC on.

[Immortal… Larry]

@mvnla2, android Galaxy tab & phone and various update levels (recorded only season 1 though). I’m still experiencing fair tosses.

I don’t play unranked battles, so that answer is no. Although I am convinced that unranked battles would not matter at all for coin toss records. It’s the same mechanism whether you play ranked or not. The only difference is that you don’t get rewards for it.

[MVNLA2]

@larry — Don’t you open the unranked battle so you can skip to the next opponent? Even if you don’t play, there is a coin toss???

[t_russell]

@mvnla2 — About the coin toss for each un-ranked battle. I always waited until after the toss to quit, but I never kept track of results myself until I no longer had the need to skip. I.E. – most of the hackers teams removed. Like @larry I found the toss to be fair, even with respect to things like whether the AI had a full banner set or not. Over the long haul its pretty much 50/50 all the way around. And since the coin for un-ranked battles uses the same software set as for ranked ones, like Larry I believe the results would be fair for it as well.

[WhiteAsIce]

@mvnla2 HTC One m7 VZW. Device shouldn’t make a difference. I never play unranked battles either. I only play Piggy McCool to reroll a new opponent, but I always quit those matches.

@burbman Versions 1.2.2 and 1.2.3 exist. Google it. Don’t trust everything you see on this site – it’s not the official Rovio site anyways.

@kerravon I’m currently bugged, since 1.2.6 doesn’t work on HTC One. I bought a cheapo $100 tablet just to play until Rovio gets their act together to patch it.

[Immortal… Larry]

@mvnla2, nope. I never skip opponents. In season 1 i would just use the disabled wifi method to finish the objectives without running into hacked accounts, but that’s it.

[Jamairoqui]

After a few more days of keeping track, I find that I consistently run about 10 +/- 5 battles fewer wins than losses (out of about 50 total battles per day). This sort of consistent bias low is precisely what you would find in a rigged game. It’s why the two green slots exists on a roulette wheel (so the probability of getting black or red is just a little below 0.5).

Think about it this way, Rovio wants you to spend real money to buy LCs. If you lose the toss more often than you win (especially when fighting opponents that have better flags and weapons), you want to buy more coins so you can keep your place in the standings. It is not in their interest financially to make the coin toss fair, and by biasing it just a little, people can convince themselves it is fair (because sometimes it looks fair just by chance), but Rovio still, on average, makes money because there are more losses.

Of course, with the new version that gives you what might be an objective ranking of your total level versus your opponent, it might be possible to figure out if the odds of winning or losing the coin toss shift based on relative rank. But I also found out I don’t really care anymore. I’ve demonstrated to myself that it’s very likely not a fair toss, but also very likely irrelevant. Progress in a league is more related to having hours in the day available for grinding, and losing, or winning, the coin toss mostly comes down to 2-star or 3-star win, respectively, outcomes.