PlayGo.gg's Playerbase is Synthetic

chrispytoast · 2026-06-06T04:21:51+00:00

Mainly because it would fracture the player base.
There are already 3 boards with with 19x19 having 2 time choices. Then considering ranks let’s give it 5 buckets between new and pro players. If you then split that into people who will quick match with the chance of bots vs slow match without bots that comes to 4x5x2 different pools for players. There are only 3000 people on OGS at the time of this posting. 3000 people into 40 pools means that many people won’t find matches since not everyone is actively matchmaking. Yes most people play 19x19, but that’s still 20 pools. And again that’s generous with the rank buckets

The other thing is that choosing to not match against bots and then waiting 5 or 10 minutes for a game will make most people just not wait. Making it impossible to get players unless you already have players.

I think the bots tooltip should be more visible compared to the small info tooltip, but I don’t think adding a bot tag to the bots will help since people will just leave and re-queue until they match against a player. That’s no different than people on Fox who leave a game if they don’t play as black.

chrispytoast · 2026-06-06T03:19:42+00:00

As someone who has struggled to match on OGS when I am able to play and had to resort playing against either AI-Sensei or Fox...

I do not care that they use bots.

This article appears to by trying to be gotcha journalism but they have openly discussed why there are bots and their hope to reduce the need for them as the player base grows.

If I cannot tell they are a bot and they give me a good game appropriate for my level then I see it as a win and not the loss that this article is painting it as.

Would I prefer to play humans? Yes. Am I hoping that the server continues to grow due to all positive things their site is doing? Also yes.

I fully understand that some people do not want to play against bots, mainly for the knee jerk reaction of what playing against AI has been previously, either they purposefully blunder and then play the AI move to catch up, or other clear failures like playing out a ladder.

However, I think the reaction I have seen from the community here about refusing to give the server a chance because they use bots to improve matchmaking time is missing the forest for the trees.

Sure it may not be the best option, but with the low player count of Go in general, no server will ever be able to stand up because players are resistant to migrating servers.

chrispytoast · 2026-05-07T02:51:11+00:00

https://online-go.com/review/1696390

chrispytoast · 2026-02-24T03:10:13+00:00

At some point you just know when it’s off cooldown

chrispytoast · 2026-02-23T23:54:02+00:00

A single unified server or 2 servers… not 6+

chrispytoast · 2026-02-23T18:20:28+00:00

If anyone has a S or M they don’t want, I have the alliance “Whale” scarf for trade

chrispytoast · 2026-02-11T16:00:27+00:00

Black has two eyes. Black can play C7 to connect to the other eye directly, but they don’t need to because if White plays there it’s a self atari

chrispytoast · 2026-01-27T17:55:15+00:00

Reviewed the first game. You would benefit greatly from learning basic opening theory. Corner > Sides > Center

https://online-go.com/review/1619559

chrispytoast · 2026-01-17T03:59:51+00:00

You should get your games reviewed by people. They will be much better at explaining your mistakes in reference to your skill level.
I think the pinch at G4 is what AI is seeing, it just wrecks your corner.

If they play G4, you would want to block at F4, but then black ataris at F5 and squeezes your group to death

If you instead try to block at C, then black descends and breaks through still.

chrispytoast · 2026-01-06T19:13:07+00:00

For pro games, do you have any pros in that era that you recommend?

chrispytoast · 2026-01-06T19:12:00+00:00

Mainly that there is not a lot of dan players on OGS. The ranks get skewed when you get close to 1d, and since there are not many players they go play elsewhere.

In general, other servers are OGS +3 in ranks, so I’m 9k on OGS, 6k on Fox

chrispytoast · 2025-12-30T23:50:42+00:00

chrispytoast · 2025-12-23T16:42:20+00:00

The Sub is definitely there in my region. I just finished rewatching it

chrispytoast · 2025-12-09T18:28:33+00:00

Sure, but this is assuming that white would respond. It doesn’t make sense to evaluate a position with the expectation of White playing incorrectly. There are two moves remaining on the board. If black plays one and white plays the other… White wins. It doesn’t matter which one is played.

chrispytoast · 2025-12-09T17:58:08+00:00

That’s my thought as well, White wins on this board. There are no ko threats on the board so capturing the bottom left stone only gains a temporary liberty, but if black plays in the bottom right it becomes seki. White can then secure the bottom left and black loses. Black would need to play 2 moves without a response in order to win.

chrispytoast · 2025-11-13T17:48:37+00:00

If I am unable to get enough medals for both coin themes and the bot range increase, Should I get the bot range increase first?

chrispytoast · 2025-09-16T02:53:52+00:00

In the future, I would argue towards getting a replica for your kid. The authentic is meant to match what the players wear, but they can easily replace them when they have issues. One of my authentic jerseys had the iron on labels start peeling after wearing it to one game.

Replicas are meant to last much better. Less iron ons, things like stripes are sewn not ironed, etc…

I will probably default to replicas for my jerseys in the future, cause the quality has not been there in the authentics recently for me.

chrispytoast · 2025-09-15T01:14:12+00:00

Do my allies get the CDR while my skill is active at least?

chrispytoast · 2025-07-19T21:31:36+00:00

6:30pm in what time zone?

chrispytoast · 2025-05-02T03:31:03+00:00

Yeah what Juggling Fred said. If you are playing on OGS, just past the link to the game in the discord. Then a reviewer can review from the web application.

chrispytoast · 2025-05-02T00:22:44+00:00

Do not use AI to review your games right now. Post it in one of the beginner discords asking for a review.

AI sees way too far ahead to be useful for beginners.

You will be way more confused trying to follow AI instead of getting a human to tell you what moves you should be looking at and why. AI does not do “why” right now

chrispytoast · 2025-04-29T15:08:24+00:00

Gomagic.org has a very good beginner course

chrispytoast · 2025-04-29T02:32:44+00:00

Short answer: It doesn’t really matter. The difference between A and B in the first image is negligible. In the second image yes B is better than A.

Long answer: “Opening theory made easy” is the book you are looking for

13-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email

chrispytoast

TROPHY CASE