Where have all the best players gone in FFA?

So, in the last couple of weeks I played FFA after a month and I wandered between 1580 and 1640 points. The thing is that barely a handful of times (I don't think more than four or five) I played against players with more points than me; and only three times I was matched against someone with more than 1600 points. And yes, I adjusted the settings, I always select a minimum of 1400 or 1500 points.

I don't want to sound like a dickhead. I know I don't have a great rating, but I think that this is a bit too much. I month ago I roamed in the 1700s and it was very normal to meet better players. I enjoy playing all the same, but I've lost points for finishing second.

So, what happens? The game's dying? Should I play at a specific hour?

i have noticed as well that since it became top 20 the players don't fight for top 10 so 20 people nearly are enjoying top 20 and not playing to stay there . i however although i have the elo for 8th place am not even on the leader board  ... when it was top 10 though it was more competitive 

FFA died the moment teams came to be ... in my opinion FFA is more fun because you don't expect anyone to help you can get backstabed at any time ... and that was why it was fun you may have skill but you need a bit of luck ... not teams i go on with someone who is kknew i can give him a plan and win i a couple of moves ... it is 1v1 on a bigger scale

FFA is only fun if played with players on the same level, I'd enjoy playing strong players but nobody is around so I stopped playing too

I'm hoping being able to play an unrated game with all players invited should help bring some strong players back. Not sure how long it will take for that feature though.

I Stopped playing FFA because I had to wait maybe 30 minutes to get into a game with 2 1400's and like one 1500. And Team Mode is honestly sad to me, my teammates always resigns, or gets mad at me because I'm suggesting moves. If you want me back, Add an unrated four player FFA.

I have been away for a few weeks, came back and can't get games against players of my rating (1800ish). Now when I want to play it is against lower rated players that love giving points to their low rated mates by giving them free pieces at the end of the game to be able to pass me. Just beyond a joke that this happens. Have tried teams briefly, but unless you have a regular partner, it is just incredibly frustrating to be paired with idiots that have no idea what they are doing and never be given the team that has red. 

FFA needs a way to kick start it again, maybe a tournament or similar to get players active, and have a way to report players that are clearly teaming up, so that people arent discouraged from playing by cheats.

Unrated games should be a good option. I imagine that winning points at 1700s is extremely hard right now and that the risk is too high, as there are barely any active players with more than 1600 points.

That also means that the leaderboard is virtually closed right now.

Maybe another option is to reset the points, but the same problem will arise eventually

the competition has gone ... it used to be so competitive and that was why it was played so much ... now nobody is fighting for anything you used to fight for top ten all the time and tried to get as high as possible ... but how are you going to do that now that all high rated players are gone and have no motive to play and get higher knowing that is nearly impossible ... competition left and with it all the players 

i will play FFA more often as long as have something to play for and not only be afraid of losing because there is no way of getting those points back

" the risk is too high" the risk of losing a virtual rating? like that matters lol

@xReuben,

"The risk is too high" if you want to reach the leaderboard. 

Don't take words out of context. 

"Lol".

"if you want to reach the leaderboard"

like

that

matters

lol

@xReuben,

If you want to go that way, chess doesn't really matter, at least when you compare it to other events and activities around the world. "Lol".

To me is hard to believe that a suppossedly irrelevant topic warrants your attention so much. "Lol".

I wills top answering you anyway, I got to assume that you're a troll (the alternative would be taking you as bitter. "Lol".)

The leaderboard is a feature of a game that this forum discusses, so it's ok to talk about it. "Lol".

I also saw that you didn't type anything about the main topic of this thread. I guess you noticed as much, right?... 

Cheers.

leaderboard matters!!! be in the first 10 players on the world in FFA and you will see

@Berenjena_Mortal, there is a simple answer to your question. First read the forum and count the amount of known bugs (many of them were reported multiple times and exist from Summer and Autumn). Then look at the game CHANGELOG topic. You'll find that in October the game development was stopped. Then in December a few bugs were fixed (there is only 1 serious one among them) and again we do not see any improvement from December.

In October @ignoble promised to hire a new developer, promised that Eric personally will participate in 4PC development and promised more. But it did not happen. I do not believe chess.com team any more. It is a pity.

People said that chess.com owners perhaps do not have money to develop this game. But then I get a newsletter where chess.com hires new staff to develop a chess engine. So, they have money to pay developers of a chess engine, but do not have money to pay a 4PC developer. It shows their priorities and clearly shows that 4PC is going to die sooner or later. At least at chess.com

P.S. Am I a top player? In Teams I am in Top 20 today, used to be Top 12 a week ago and did not play for around a week. If I'll play a single FFA game today, the system will update my rating and I'll be in FFA Top 5 (either Top 2 or Top 3).  My best results (Autumn 2017): Top 2 in FFA and Top 4 in Teams.

Hi, mapet!!! I am top-player in FFA. And I want to kick 1800+ boys and get more rating points. But many players go away because rating system have new forms. High jumping was funny to get rating. 1 winning - and +60 points !!! But cool man is not happy if he get minus 60 for losing game...  1700 players hopes to get +60 and will go to the LEADERBOARD. But new slowly rating system kills this 1700 hopes. And now I play only team. So I want to stay in the TOP.

i cant play this game at all because of the connection issue

i tried chrome and edge but couldnt

Thanks, @BabYagun. I guess that the game is slowly dying. Such a shame.

I'll keep playing, though.

I remember it was fun, @true_Kotenka. It was easy to get the hope of reaching the leaderboard.