Online players in the same room.
From a player on RB who realised that his opponents were both in the same room:
I'm not suggesting they would cheat but I wasn't comfortable with it.
I was OK with it, my arguments being:
1) If they can't see each other's screen then it's no different to sitting at the table.
2) If it was BBO you would be none the wiser.
Does the EBU have any guidance on this?
Jeremy
Comments
On Realbridge during lockdown against one pair of was possible to see one opponent's screen through the other's. Resolution wasn't good enough to make out specific cards and I didn't try to look. Against another pair it was possible to hear questions and explanations from the other room.
I seem to remember the EBU did publish guidance that this type of set-up wasn't allowed.
I have played many times on BBO, and we always do it in the same room.
Alan
It's very unsatisfactory to do so. Clearly a risk of a player making a comment, perhaps out of frustration, that his partner has not found the "obvious" switch
It's in the EBU's regulations for knockout matches:
https://www.ebu.co.uk/documents/competitions/regulations-and-conditions-of-contest/general-regulations.pdf
section F item 58: Players must not be in the same room as any other member of their team or within hearing range of them while playing.
I assume something similar would appear in the conditions of contest for other "serious" events played online.
How is that any differnt to being F2F at a table?
This says that:
_Players must not be in the same room as any other member of their team or within hearing range of them while playing. _
Although it does not say so, surely this means members of their team other than their partner. On RB, you can hear your partner, in fact you must be able to in order to correct any mis-information at the appropriate time.
Or have they just failed to update it for play on a system with video and audio like RealBridge?
I assume that "hearing range" in the regulation means hearing range via sound transmission through the air, and doesn't count sound transmission over the Internet via the playing platform itself.
(This matters because RealBridge allows you to mute your microphone – which is something that I do as standard as dummy in order to avoid any subconscious audible reactions I might have to the play being picked up by opponents or declarer – and thus being within hearing range might potentially allow communication that the opponents couldn't pick up on, whereas if you aren't within hearing range, the opponents will be aware of any audible UI that might be sent.)
Indeed.
"How is that any differnt to being F2F at a table?"
F2F there are a lot of others around to dissuade inappropriate comment. At home with two in the room there is nothing to rein such coments in.