Mentoring & fair play

[Mr Aedron]

Hi all,

I have a couple of questions on what's allowed regarding getting mentoring.

I have been looking for a while for someone to teach me the next level of game. I'm definitely doing well in this game but I have been hoping to fight with the top 10 for a while and I can definitely see and feel that I am currently no match for some more top players.

After reaching out to one of them (let's call him KonKc *not his really name*), that player answered rather positively. However, two technical difficulties raised up:
1/ I want to keep playing normal, ranked games
2/ I want to play that very player rather often
My main concern is that at no point this player should have any issue as he is a top, top ranked player.

Regarding point 1, I cannot go in mentoring games, for my motivation and to find the level of opponents I need to keep learning. Obviously most mentoring games are for total beginners so I wouldn't learn much. I also doubt that top 30 players are gonna want to go unranked/mentoring. Moreover, I'd like to play that player so that he can feel and see how I play first hands.
That raises questions though. Am I allowed to open my communications to that player when he is not in the game? I am thinking copy/pasting entire messages to ask for feedback (do I handle a comm properly? I am offering enough for that guy to flip? Do I understand what drives that player? ... ).

Obviously, regarding point 2, I will make sure that at no point I'll get a tactical advantage or diplomatic advantage. I also believe that by now, players who crossed me on the board should know that I am never taking any suspicious edge.

Overall, I'm confident that this should not be too controversial but I'd like to be sure.

What I hope by this message is to flag what I plan to do & get some validation and/or guidelines from the mods on how to do it in a way that does not affect the game.
Could a mod give me some feedback on this?

Cheers,
Mr Aedron

[Martz]

Hi Mr Aedron,

As long as you're not in an anonymous game, I don't see the problem with asking someone who is not in the game for advice via private messages?

That means playing regular games though, if you were trying to achieve a top 10 ranking I find that sometimes my rank has influenced other players strategy against me.

Martz

[dib]

Team play is not allowed

[Strategus]

General rules of thumb are that:-

You should never discuss a live game outside that game.
If a game finished, you can ask questions about what happenned, why, and what you could have done differently
You can at any time ask generic questions about tactics etc, as long as they are not referencing a current game
If you play with the same player in multiple games, prepare to defend your case on metagaming, as someone might report you, even if you think you are not
You can never divulge outside a game that you are playing in an anonymous players game
You can tell people what you like in game on pp or messages
Yes, players do make decisions based on your ranking. It is something that is unavoidable. If you don't like it, play anon players games only

[Mr Aedron]

Dib, what do you mean by team play?

Graham, "You should never discuss a live game outside that game": seriously? That's got to be okay. If you talk to a friend and goes "so I have that brazilian guy who is dead set on not wanting to solo while another mexican mate & myself throwing. He can do it. But he's shitting his pants. How do I convince such a guy?" That's team play?

For the rest, I have no questions and it shouldn't be any issue. I don't wanna play the same player on multiple games simultaneously but I do plan to play that player repeatedly. I can't imagine this being foul play but I can imagine someone shouting for foul play the moment we ally.
That said, I do not underestimate the difficulty of being totally neutral when you play 5 random and 1 guy you know inside out.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Nanook]

I'd suggest you ask for advice after a game is finished. Getting advice of the kind you're talking about (showing a message with intent to get advice how to respond to it especially) is against our site policy.

However, getting advice on what you could've done differently after a game is done perfectly fine, and encouraged even!

[dib]

Dib, what do you mean by team play?

What Nanook Said.

[Strategus]

Just saying what the rule says

[Mr Aedron]

Alrighty, then I won't.
AAR only then

[Strategus]

Alrighty, then I won't.
AAR only then

You know it makes sense.