Have we discussed before the option of making players anonymous for tournaments.  I think that sometimes players are targeted, even before the games starts, because of their record.  It would be great if we could have an option, at least during tournaments, to keep players anonymous.  Then the names would be revealed when the tournament ends.

An alternate, or parallel solution, is to prevent chatting during games to eliminate or limit collusion.

Counter Point:

Then I would have to wait a few turns to be able to tell if a player has any skill or not. 

A good player will have killed me off by then.  I'm one of those players that will frequently try to check the good players first (or at least factor in their skills when deciding how to move). It's a basic survival strategy. 

I would think that if a player is skilled enough to kill you after a few rounds, you should be able to determine their skill after the first round.

Maybe. Sometimes, especially with lots of players, the best first move is really to just place and end.

I agree with the idea Squint, if it could be pulled off.

On the other hand, do you play differently against different players, noting a certain player's aggressiveness or passiveness or cleverness? I know I do. We'd lose that factor going into the game and you'd have to learn the traits of the other player(s) as the game goes.  Not necessarily a bad thing, I guess.

I definitely take advantage of knowing my opponents style and skill when I play, so I can see both sides of the issue, that is why I am suggesting it as an option only and for tourney play only

I am most concerned when multiple players will collude to take out an opponent they fear. You could argue that is part of the game, but it is contrary to my notion of sportsmanship.

I think it'd make some tourneys more interesting, and some less interesting for sure. So if it was a turn on/off kinda thing, I think it'd be cool. 

Let me clarify my comment above, my fear is that multiple players will collude to take out someone they fear BEFORE the game starts. This, I think, is contrary to the spirit of fair play. Once the game has started and a player has become dominant it make sense that others would band together to suppress the player with the upper hand. 

Couldn't agree more.

Thingol wrote: Couldn't agree more.

±1

I was in a RR tourney a little while ago where in the last game I knew a certain player had to lose that game in order for me to win the tourney.   I would have preferred not knowing that ahead of time* and just focused on winning the game.

*Yes I could just not look, but if other players are then I prefer to know also.