Best Of

That is very valuable information. It would actually support the bespoke theory, which is separate from the VCR theory @candylua. I might have to revisit the VCR theory in light of some of the most recent posts I have seen from other players, including yours.

The Bespoke theory suggests that the 19 opponents we saw were equally skilled/experienced/challenging as ourselves. I then assumed that VCR was applied to those leaderboards where players turned out to be stronger/faster scoring than anticipated by the app. I think this is still the case, but apparently only for the weaker players.

Bespoke means matching like with like in the context of All Stars. The aim is to lure players into spending money thinking that they are in with a chance by giving them opponents they can beat. I had tried very hard to fool the game for weeks into concluding I was a newbie or someone at the brink of giving up playing Candy Crush. I lost several episode races and stopped playing each account for days or a week, getting "stuck" on legendary levels. Since then there was also the suggestion floated by a wise member of this community that the app might choose bespoke opponents according to whether we won Candy Royale. This seemed so simple and obvious I tried this out in all my accounts in round 1/3. It seemed rather a coincidence that each account saw Candy Royale as it entered the round. It may be that players like yourself get penalised for being excellent crushers and are given bespoke hard opponents.

I admire what you have achieved in this round. This would make you a worthy winner and put you in with a genuine chance. The next round will be harder for all of us but I doubt it will be harder than the round you just played, because you got such hard opponents. Assuming that what I did was what gave me easier leaderboards, to anyone reading this I would suggest this:

Try this when you enter round 2/2:

Don't activate the super charger before joining the leaderboard. So once you see it offered, wait with playing new levels until you are ready to start joining the round. It will take four levels to activate it, so failure won't lose it. Play one new level to join the leaderboard. Fail one level (and fail Candy Royale if it shows up as usual), play and pass a second level to ensure the leaderboard starts filling up. I have found that if I only play one level it won't fill up. After the second level do NOT crush all out and under no circumstances should anyone play a token at that point, i.e before the leaderboard is full to capacity. Once you see 50 or 100 players (we don't know yet how many it will be, but I am aiming to find it out early in the round and let everyone know) start crushing as hard and as long as you can. I think that is the best chance any of us have to make it through to the last round with all of our tokens. It will take about 10 episodes for a fast crusher to catch up one token. There seems to always be at least one player per leaderboard who plays a token at the start. On the easier leaderboards these will stop and allow others to catch them up, so don't be put off by seeing players way ahead early on.

It may of course all be random in the next round and then it's down to sheer luck of who you are paired with. But I think this method is worth a try because it's what worked for me in the last round.

Good luck!

I’ve seen a lot of people feeling stressed or discouraged, myself included, because we’ve already used all of our 10x multiplier tokens, whether by accident or just not realizing how they worked at first. But don’t panic 💛

Those tokens are only ONE part of the game, not the whole strategy. Plenty of players still do really well without them by playing smart, staying consistent, and keeping a positive mindset.

This competition is a marathon, not a sprint. Everyone moves through it differently, and sometimes the people who stay patient and keep a level head end up coming out on top.

If you’re out of 10x tokens:
✨ Focus on clean wins instead of rushing
✨ Be strategic about when you play
✨ Take breaks so you don’t burn out
✨ Trust your progress, you’ve made it this far for a reason

You’re not out of the game. Keep going, stay confident, and don’t let one part of the challenge shake your mindset. You’ve got this 💪