Is there any disadvantage to starting the knockout round late?

Question

The 2nd knockout round is Apr12-17. If I’m unable to start playing until say Apr 15, does that put me at a disadvantage? Or am I placed in a group that’s all starting at the same time? Extreme example: if everyone in the group starts at the same time, could someone literally start playing an hour before the round ends, and have the same chance of advancing as someone who started 5 days earlier?

Colleen Companion Welsh · Accepted Answer

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/443319/is-there-any-disadvantage-to-starting-the-knockout-round-late

Last weekend I did not start the event until one day after it started.  I did make it to the finals but I noticed that the leader was ahead, but not so much that I could not catch up if I really tried.  Its highly unlikely that someone could start the event an hour before the event ends and win.  Last weekend I noticed that I got several pop ups reminding me this was a live event and I needed to be online.  I was driving for several hours and my cell phone service was not the greatest that first day. Hope this helps, have a great day 😊

christinewupp · Accepted Answer

https://community.king.com/en/candy-crush-saga/discussion/443319/is-there-any-disadvantage-to-starting-the-knockout-round-late

Hello @gatorpaul1 That is a question we cannot answer at the moment. It is a very important questions though!

The final Knockout rounds starting April 20th will certainly leave any player at a disadvantage if they join late. That round will have a limited number of leaderboards and newcomers will then be added to existing leaderboards, so if you join late the leader will already be way ahead.

In the qualifier rounds, as @Colleen12 stated, there was an advantage to players joining late as there were indefinite numbers of leaderboards created, and if you started late you would be competing against others starting at that time.

However, to answer your question about the round starting 12th April  : We do not know how this round will function. King have not disclosed any information of how many players will be on each leaderboard. If it is any help to you, I do intend to test this out early on in the round starting on April 12th and intend to post in the All Stars forum to let others know if joining late is a disadvantage. So keep your eyes open for my post.