Toggle to anonymize name in events

[Aldreen]

It's my impression that it's a common practice to look up the name of ones opponent to see what decklists they have been using in recent events, and using this knowledge to their advantage. Even worse, some streamers experience their opponents checking in on their stream, making it so that they have to put a delay or hide their hand in order to not have a severe competitive disadvantage, any solution on the streamer side massively reduces stream quality for the viewers.

My suggestion is to implement a toggle where your username is anonymized for the opponent during the match, to remove the impact this outside knowledge has on a given match, while also alleviating some friction streamers experience when considering streaming higher stakes tournaments.

 

[Torbin]

While this is a good idea, part of the problem comes in that people will abuse this function quite badly, so while we have considered this, we are still evaluating the best way to handle these situations.

 

[Aldreen]

What types of abuse are you concerned about?

I'd love see something with this effect go live, so if possible, I'd like to contribute toward finding a solution.
If the concern is that abusive chat would become harder to report due to missing usernames, I'd suggest showing the name of your opponent as the game ends. This will also mean that the 'wow-factor' of playing/beating a renowned player isn't lost by applying this change.

 

[Firedrake]

"the concern is that abusive chat would become harder to report due to missing usernames"

You would also presume Daybreak would have access to the actual user name if reporting misconduct.

 

[Torbin]

its not about us, it's about the players being able to report those user names, also knowing who to block if they do not wish to engage with them.

"the concern is that abusive chat would become harder to report due to missing usernames"

You would also presume Daybreak would have access to the actual user name if reporting misconduct.

 

[Efrtheropt]

it's a common practice to look up the name of ones opponent to see what decklists they have been using in recent events, and using this knowledge to their advantage

Why is this a problem? In paper, for example, if you play regularly at an lgs you'll pretty quickly learn what decks people play, and most paper competitive events are open decklist anyways. This can also be used as an advantage if you choose a deck you wouldn't normally. The streaming issue is more of a problem, obviously ideally it shouldn't be possible, but it is also just a risk of streaming any competitive game with hidden information.

Imo, the game would be significantly worse off if you didn't know who you're playing against.