Congratz to everyone who made it to Elite League

What's the difference?

Nothing immediately comes to my mind for the psuedo code of how to identify which games are simuls and which aren't, other than to have some kind of flag set for when seeks are initiated during a game... and since they don't have something like that in place, trying to make one would affect all sorts of interconnected code.

There are some extremely simple things they could do (but don't) to catch e.g. sandbaggers and people making multiple accounts to boost their rating... but, at least in my mind, detecting simuls wouldn't be that simple.

The Fair Play policy states "Do not artificially manipulate ratings, matches, or game outcomes". I don't believe that losing rating is against the rules. Manipulating results in order to do things like enter tournaments at a lower rating is. If you just play mindlessly and half asleep and lose a bunch of ratings you're not "artificially manipulating outcomes," you're just playing like poo.

Right now the Elite leaderboard has 282 players, but it's still possible to enter Wood and advance in the following weeks: does it mean that every week there will be almost 300 players entering Elite? It seems that it never ends... I wonder if in a month or two entering Elite will require just 2k points... I mean, the first wave has the most addicted players, the casuals and new accounts joined later on, and they'll have it easy, I think, no?

@llama47

I had to rush my $%& off to keep up with the others in my division of 50 players. I did whatever I had to do in order to advance, with 4 of us competing hardcore for 3 slots, only to see 1 hour before ending that one of them had his account closed for abuse, therefore got also removed from Leagues.

For that, I lost time, sleep and partially, my moral sanity.

I also had to find out from salty players that rules got changed overnight, while I knew other people saying some things are not only allowed, but actually encouraged, since chess.com suddenly promotes quantity over quality.

This level of lack of communication from chess.com is unacceptable. People keep doing simuls right now and will likely say ''oops, I didn't know you changed rules'' once/if they're caught. AND SOME OF THEM MAY ACTUALLY BE GENUINE AND TRUTHFUL ABOUT IT. How do you find the moral balance to punish them, after they gave you their time, on your site, watching your ads, being part of your content?

And for the love of God, you should NOT change rules in the middle of it, after so many people got here because of the initial rules in the first place.

Pretty incompetent is an understatement.

No, it could be a lot more, and it could be a lot fewer. It just depends on how many people play during that cycle. About 1 out of every 6000 people who started in wood will end up in Elite 5 weeks later (it would be fewer but there are ties).

Yeah, I think the upper leagues will probably get easier to enter over time. It's a lot more competitive right now because there is money on the line.

I cant make crystal league

And that was not even the most hardcore division. 30 minutes before ending, 5th place in Crystal global leaderboard was on 4th place in his division, not advancing while having 9000+ trophies. Meanwhile, I saw a Crystal division where 3rd place advanced to Elite with something like... 900 points.

This is one more reason why the 50-people divisions are flawed in a major way.

No sane person with an actual life who plays on the up-and-up can.

Yep, I understood this on week 1 when I was coming up with strategies for the best trophy per hour rates and a mod told me that simuls were technically not allowed. I realized it wasn't in the rules and would cause problems later. This (and the inconsistency with arena trophies) made the competition a lot less interesting to me because it meant the people who designed it didn't understand much.

Part of the fun of games is devising strategies, but the people who design the game require a certain level of competence, otherwise there wont be any interesting strategies. Chess.com failed to meet the minimum. This was some half baked macaroni art by some marketing major

That's just part of the fun of it IMO. You have to realize leaving league and coming back puts you in a less competitive division. People who don't realize are punished by having to play more to advance.

I have been screaming this from the rooftops from the beginning. It's half-baked and full of holes, and will be won by the person or people who most effectively manipulate the rules. In spite of it, I'm sure chesscom is making a killing since more people playing means more people buying, and you only need to sell a few hundred diamond memberships to pay for the whole thing. Remember, promotional prizes are tax-deductible, so it's far fewer than you might think.

@llama47

Crystal was the last relevant league for leaving to enter a less competitive division. 

With Elite, 7500 Crystal players turn into 450 ultra active ones. No more free passage for the lazy.

Also, I was too scared to leave (and seek an easier division) because I saw people in forum claiming they shouldn't have left league, because their new division doesn't have 50 people yet and they don't get trophies until division is full (which may be next week, when is too late, if you're competing hardcore)

Going from 1400 to 900 would be more frowned upon imo.

Losing rating IS NOT a violation of fair play! It's just not. Manipulating ratings is, but if you just lose a lot because you're playing too much, they can't punish you, especially if the structure of the game encourages it. After all, your rating DOES NOT affect how many trophies you collect.

I get it now, anyway it's not worth playing this week they're already approaching 1000 trophies without simuls lol.

Arenas are one of the things that provide bonuses. That's obviously one of the things the site wanted to promote. 

You can't have more than one window open to live at a time. 

I made it to Crystal. I have a job and life

Couldn't complete to get Elite, due to said job and life.