Overgrow

From Petal Crashers Wiki

Lilibri teaching the player about overgrowth.

Overgrowth occurs when one's board is filled up with blocks and there are no valid moves remaining. If a player is overgrown, they lose the game. For Score Attack modes outside of Trash Trial, this is an unlikely event that will cause the game to end early. In Versus Mode, causing your opponent to overgrow is a common method of winning in Tug-of-War and the only method of winning in Trash Attack.

Overgrowth may occur if the player grows petals too aggressively and is unable to clear them quickly enough, or if they receive more garbage than they are capable of digging through. It is not enough that a player is no longer able to make matches or even push petals—as long as there are empty spaces on the board, growing is a valid move. It is known as lock-out when a player's board will inevitably overgrow.

Players who are locked out may stall for time, but the auto-grow timer will eventually force them to make a move or grow in new petals, so a player can only stall for so long. This may occasionally lead to degenerate play if both players are locked out at the same time. However, the AI will not stall in this manner, leading to situations where both players are locked out but the AI continues to make moves, and loses.