diff --git a/services/api/src/matches/daily.rs b/services/api/src/matches/daily.rs
index d374169..c840369 100644
--- a/services/api/src/matches/daily.rs
+++ b/services/api/src/matches/daily.rs
@@ -195,8 +195,11 @@ pub fn score(mine: SideResult, theirs: SideResult) -> Option<i64> {
 /// This is also what a co-op daily needs: a second human seated on the player's
 /// team is summed into the same side rather than counted against it.
 ///
-/// A row with no battle value is skipped rather than trusted: an observer has
-/// none, and so does a result written before arena reported it.
+/// A row with no battle value is skipped rather than trusted: a watcher seat
+/// has none, and so does a result written before arena reported it. That is
+/// also the whole of the test - the `observer` flag is not usable here, since
+/// MegaMek sets it on a side that has lost every machine, and summing a
+/// challenge without the side that lost is how a defeat scores as a walkover.
 pub fn sides_from_result(result: &serde_json::Value) -> Option<(SideResult, SideResult)> {
     let players = result.get("players")?.as_array()?;
     let mine_team = players
@@ -214,9 +217,6 @@ pub fn sides_from_result(result: &serde_json::Value) -> Option<(SideResult, Side
         bv_left: 0,
     };
     for row in players {
-        if row.get("observer").and_then(|o| o.as_bool()) == Some(true) {
-            continue;
-        }
         let (Some(team), Some(bv_start), Some(bv_left)) = (
             row.get("team").and_then(|t| t.as_i64()),
             row.get("bvStart").and_then(|b| b.as_i64()),
diff --git a/services/api/src/share.rs b/services/api/src/share.rs
index a2ea148..784c34c 100644
--- a/services/api/src/share.rs
+++ b/services/api/src/share.rs
@@ -446,9 +446,14 @@ const PLAYER_NONE: i64 = -1;
 
 /// The seats MegaMek holds for us rather than for a player: the watcher that
 /// spools turn reports, and the seat a browser takes in a match nobody is
-/// playing. Dropped by name as well as by the server's observer flag, which
-/// is only set once every human seat has arrived - the same rule the match
-/// page applies in arena's `suramadu/web/report.js`, and for the same reason.
+/// playing. Dropped by name, and by never having owned a unit.
+///
+/// **Not** by the `observer` flag, which cannot be used for this. MegaMek
+/// sets it on any player holding no entities outside the lounge, so a force
+/// that was wiped out ends the match flagged as a watcher - and arena records
+/// each seat as the game last described it. A side that lost every machine is
+/// the loser, not a spectator, and dropping it leaves a decided match with no
+/// loser in it to name.
 const WATCHERS: [&str; 2] = ["ArenaObserver", "ArenaSpectator"];
 
 struct Force {
@@ -508,9 +513,6 @@ fn summarise(result: &serde_json::Value) -> Option<Summary> {
     let players = result.get("players")?.as_array()?;
     let mut forces = Vec::new();
     for player in players {
-        if player.get("observer").and_then(serde_json::Value::as_bool) == Some(true) {
-            continue;
-        }
         let name = player
             .get("name")
             .and_then(serde_json::Value::as_str)
@@ -2628,6 +2630,40 @@ letter-spacing:.06em}\
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
+
+    /// A side that lost every machine is flagged `observer` by MegaMek, and
+    /// arena records each seat as the game last described it. Dropping it took
+    /// the loser out of a decided match, which then read as a draw with one
+    /// force in it - match 06e4fd45, where the OPFOR seat held three Meks and
+    /// 3,142 battle value and did not appear on the report at all.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_wiped_out_side_is_the_loser_not_a_watcher() {
+        let result = serde_json::json!({
+            "round": 5,
+            "victoryTeam": 1,
+            "victoryPlayerId": -1,
+            "players": [
+                {"id": 0, "name": "@permadeath.com", "slot": "Challenger", "observer": false,
+                 "team": 1, "unitsStart": 1, "unitsRemaining": 1,
+                 "bvStart": 3132, "bvRemaining": 2766, "units": []},
+                {"id": 1, "name": "@lance.blue", "slot": "OPFOR", "observer": true,
+                 "team": 2, "unitsStart": 3, "unitsRemaining": 0,
+                 "bvStart": 3142, "bvRemaining": 0, "units": []},
+                {"id": 3, "name": "ArenaObserver", "slot": "ArenaObserver", "observer": true,
+                 "team": -1, "unitsStart": 0, "unitsRemaining": 0,
+                 "bvStart": 0, "bvRemaining": 0, "units": []}
+            ]
+        });
+
+        let summary = summarise(&result).expect("a summary");
+        let names: Vec<&str> = summary.forces.iter().map(|f| f.name.as_str()).collect();
+        assert_eq!(
+            names,
+            vec!["@permadeath.com", "@lance.blue"],
+            "the watcher goes, both fighters stay"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(summary.title(), "@permadeath.com beat @lance.blue");
+    }
     use super::*;
 
     /// One real machine, as arena's UnitReport wrote it: a Griffin with its