well that wood league there was pretty competitive
but it was holiday season
and the first week
i plan to get to bronze after all the people who play a lot are gone lol
Your wood division required 108 points to promote... pretty much anyone can get that many in 1 hour. It's easy to find 1 hour to play if you have all week. That's not very competitive 
well pretty much everyone doesnt include me as i play 15|10 because i dont really care
also it started 2 days late and i played not much
People like this guy...
https://www.chess.com/member/22char1961
His account has been open for 46 days and he's played 4200 games.
He probably doesn't even know leagues exist, but he's on the leaderboard.
Some people just play a lot of chess.
A very relevant fact that often is not realized -
For many of these misfits they simply do not care if they are caught and banned. It is a running challenge for them - how long the new account can last. They know they will eventually be spotted and on to the next itineration. It’s a personal battle with the results known in advance - except for sometimes they can beat the system, win an event while thumbing their noses.
but i get your point, that was actually really easy to promote
Where’s any marketing value if otherwise ? Someone there is very clever and successful at promoting innovative ideas to increase membership and participation. Puzzle rush was a smash hit. But can’t live on your laurels forever.
By the way, it's a lot easier to gain points if you're e.g. a titled player.
You enter some random arena, and win >90% of your games. A high win% means high trophies per minute, plus win streaks in arenas give bonus points.
There should be a disproportionately large number of young titled players in the upper leagues.
I don't think that's true. Titled players don't clean up in arenas. They have to play mostly other titled players.
The guys who win arenas are usually low rated. They play other low rated players.
A very relevant fact that often is not realized -
For many of these misfits they simply do not care if they are caught and banned. It is a running challenge for them - how long the new account can last. They know they will eventually be spotted and on to the next itineration. It’s a personal battle with the results known in advance - except for sometimes they can beat the system, win an event while thumbing their noses.
You can't open a new account every three days and make it far in these leagues.
By the way, it's a lot easier to gain points if you're e.g. a titled player.
You enter some random arena, and win >90% of your games. A high win% means high trophies per minute, plus win streaks in arenas give bonus points.
There should be a disproportionately large number of young titled players in the upper leagues.
I don't think that's true. Titled players don't clean up in arenas. They have to play mostly other titled players.
The guys who win arenas are usually low rated. They play other low rated players.
Yeah low rated players often win, but it would be strange for anyone to be able to consistently win arenas without sandbagging (or without being much higher rated than the field). So the top arena farmers for league play in later weeks will be... strong masters who don't usually bother with plebian arenas.
I played in a bullet arena a few hours ago, and won 8 in a row before quitting (to vainly admire a new peak rating). My average opponent's rating was 1900... where were all the masters? 
I know in large or important arenas there are many, but in my limited experience (observing a few the last few days) there aren't many in the every-hour type of arenas.
I'm done. I made it to Bronze. That's enough.
I figure that I spent about 27 hours last week to get 635 points.
Meanwhile, in the first post, I cited someone who earned 7000+ points in a week. That would take me 270 hours in a 168 hour week.
It seems obvious to me that I can't do it. I think the winners are playing bullet arenas.
Have fun.
I hope people will make posts about the kinds of efforts they are making.
I'm done. I made it to Bronze. That's enough.
I figure that I spent about 27 hours last week to get 635 points.
Meanwhile, in the first post, I cited someone who earned 7000+ points in a week. That would take me 270 hours in a 168 hour week.
It seems obvious to me that I can't do it.
Have fun.
This guy almost got 10,000 in a week
https://www.chess.com/member/ertino
He's also played 78,000 games in 2.5 years... averaging ~85 games a day, every day, for years.
Pretty sure he doesn't even know leagues exist. Someone pointed out his first few days here he played over 300 games a day.
He's a week behind the leaders, however. He's only in Stone and has 6+ days left. He evidently took a week off.
It's just kind of amazing... I mean, you assume people like this exist, but the league leaderboard lets you find them.
I'm done. I made it to Bronze. That's enough.
I figure that I spent about 27 hours last week to get 635 points.
Meanwhile, in the first post, I cited someone who earned 7000+ points in a week. That would take me 270 hours in a 168 hour week.
It seems obvious to me that I can't do it. I think the winners are playing bullet arenas.
Have fun.
I hope people will make posts about the kinds of efforts they are making.
In beta I made it to Silver, without much playing. I'll be lucky to get there now, at least for a few weeks.
So the leagues were finally released 3 days ago.
After a few days, I am pleased to see I am near the top of my Wood league with a respectable 225 points.
However, when I look at the leaderboard, I find that I am already 7,000 points behind the leaders.
The leader has played 331 bullet and nearly 300 blitz games since Thursday. He has won more that 600 games in that period.
I conclude that some people play all day every day.
/ I know that the points don't carry over from week to week but let's face facts-- the ability to put up 7200 points is going to pay off. And that unless someone is willing to play 12+ hours per day, they have little or no chance to get into the top leagues.
Umm, yeah, obviously.
Or... I guess maybe not as obvious if you've never seen it. I've known about players like @peacemyfriend for many years (currently has played 375,000 games on that account) and I've looked into the playing habits of people who play 24 hour tournaments.
Yes, the top leagues will tend to be full of people with medical / psychological issues
@peacemyfriend is out. He took Christmas week off from playing for some reason, falling a week behind. But then he came back and won his divisions for several weeks. He made it to Bronze a week ago but since then he's been out.
So the leagues were finally released 3 days ago.
After a few days, I am pleased to see I am near the top of my Wood league with a respectable 225 points.
However, when I look at the leaderboard, I find that I am already 7,000 points behind the leaders.
The leader has played 331 bullet and nearly 300 blitz games since Thursday. He has won more that 600 games in that period.
I conclude that some people play all day every day.
/ I know that the points don't carry over from week to week but let's face facts-- the ability to put up 7200 points is going to pay off. And that unless someone is willing to play 12+ hours per day, they have little or no chance to get into the top leagues.
Umm, yeah, obviously.
Or... I guess maybe not as obvious if you've never seen it. I've known about players like @peacemyfriend for many years (currently has played 375,000 games on that account) and I've looked into the playing habits of people who play 24 hour tournaments.
Yes, the top leagues will tend to be full of people with medical / psychological issues
@peacemyfriend is out. He took Christmas week off from playing for some reason, falling a week behind. But then he came back and won his divisions for several weeks. He made it to Bronze a week ago but since then he's been out.
I'm sure some more interesting people will bubble up to the top leagues.
No one has gotten more trophies in a week than this guy @ertino and he doesn't seem to care about leagues, just playing his usual rate of occasionally having back to back 300 game days. He's played almost 80,000 games in 2.5 years which is just incredible.
I am in the silver league now. I have watched so all league leaders are lowly rated players...nearly 1000 rated...And those players are playing with nearly equal rating players. So, is this the tactics that to gain league leadership people are keeping their chess.com rating as low as possible to gain league points? Please watch for this trend, and if so , notify chess.com.
So the leagues were finally released 3 days ago.
After a few days, I am pleased to see I am near the top of my Wood league with a respectable 225 points.
However, when I look at the leaderboard, I find that I am already 7,000 points behind the leaders.
The leader has played 331 bullet and nearly 300 blitz games since Thursday. He has won more that 600 games in that period.
I conclude that some people play all day every day.
/ I know that the points don't carry over from week to week but let's face facts-- the ability to put up 7200 points is going to pay off. And that unless someone is willing to play 12+ hours per day, they have little or no chance to get into the top leagues.
I thought that you are here to simply moderate the site.
Turns out, you did play as well.