It seems that not only did history repeat itself, but worse — this new version of All Stars ended up being even more frustrating! My case wasn't different from most people here. I was competing for the lead with a player from the U.S., while I'm based in the U.K. Whenever she went offline, I took the lead, and when I stopped, she overtook me.
By the end of Saturday, into early Sunday morning, I managed to secure the lead with a good point margin (as had been the case throughout the competition), which would allow me to manage the lead as I had been doing. To my surprise, on Sunday morning, when my opponent started playing, her points began to increase in a way that I can only describe as suspicious, showing a very different pattern compared to previous days.
I have no proof to accuse her of anything illegal, and I hope she played fairly and earned her spot with effort. But all my advantage vanished within minutes, and she took the lead. It's incredibly frustrating (especially after the time and money invested) to be eliminated with the feeling that you were somehow deceived. But anyway, I hope I’m wrong.
That was my story with King’s All Stars. That said, here are some observations (both criticism and suggestions):
- Time zones: Honestly, I think it’s a terrible idea to group players from different time zones! It’s unfair to everyone!
- Transparency and communication: It seems King doesn’t offer either (and apparently doesn’t care). Why not provide a report with data and actions taken to fight cheating? There should be a channel where participants can report suspicious behavior or raise a red flag!
- Other things that caught my attention: the color bomb booster appeared one day and then disappeared! Also, there were several levels with no purple candy at all (I mean, if you're creating a competition to collect the most purple candy, why would you have levels without any? Brilliant idea, huh?). I even had three levels in a row without purple candy! Were these no-purple-candy levels equally distributed among players? If not, that could already be grounds for a serious legal issue!
Another thing that stood out: players competing on different levels! Honestly, if you’re offering a million-dollar prize, the organization of this event needs a lot of improvement.
