r/wordsalvo

Loving the game but the italic on the blanks is really jarring for me. Maybe it's a me thing! Would it be possible to have it in a different color and still have it in a standard font?

Last season, tournament games started the moment one player pressed play. No check that the other player was actually there. If your opponent made their first move while you were offline, your clock was already running. Miss enough turns and the game forfeited — not because you weren't playing, but because you didn't know it had started.

There was another problem too. A lot of players signed up out of curiosity but never intended to play. Their opponents started the game, waited, and eventually timed out. You did everything right and still lost the match.

This season we tried to fix both. Better sign-up messaging, and a Ready system: both players confirm they want to play before the board opens and the clock starts. If your opponent signed up but has no intention of playing, you know before you waste turns waiting.

That system is live, but it didn't ship cleanly.

Right now, unconfirmed tournament games are showing up in your main lobby mixed in with your active games. They shouldn't be there. Players pressing the Ready button are seeing "Log in to continue" — even though they're fully logged in. That's a bug in the current version, nothing to do with your account. And it's still possible to tap through to the game board before your opponent has confirmed, which defeats the purpose.

A fix goes out later today via app update. Here's how it works once you've updated.

Open Tournament → Games. Your scheduled fixtures appear under "Not started." Both players see an I'm Ready button. Tap it and your button changes to Waiting. Your opponent then sees Start game — when they tap that, the match begins and you both get a notification. Until both players have confirmed, the board stays locked.

Unconfirmed games will no longer appear in your main lobby.

If your opponent never responds If you pressed I'm Ready but your opponent never taps Start game before the season ends, the fixture is forfeited in your favor. You get 3 points. They receive a no-show on their record. If neither player confirmed, the fixture doesn't count for either side.

Hold off on starting new tournament games until the update is live. We'll post here when it's available.