I'm just posting this here because this round of the Candy Cup is ideal for working out what is going on with these leaderboards, so maybe others here might be interested to join me in trying to figure out the patterns. The 1st knockout rounds are always the easiest to get past, it was exactly the same for me in All Stars, I remember. So this is a great round to just watch and study what is going on.
Here are my two leaderboards, both players joined the competition on Wednesday, when there were 2 days and 15 hours left to play and both played the same levels. I took screenshots both at the beginning, and just now (with 22 hours left to play). Player 1:
So this leaderboard seems to have stalled. I mean the entire leaderboard. The interesting point here is that the early leaders have all stopped playing. I also haven't played very much myself. I think these two facts may be the clue to why the leaderboard has stopped. I find that looking at the players at the bottom of our leaderboards is helpful as well in figuring out what is happening: the bottom players sometimes play just one level and then don't play at all. This is good evidence that the entire leaderboard is moving as one unit, not each player as an individual, but the leaderboard has an inbuilt dynamic.
This is the other player, who joined at exactly the same time.
I think that I have found the pattern and what makes these leaderboards behave like they do, so anyone interested in more details please check out my thread in the Candy Corner.
This competition is a unique chance for all of us to experiment and try figure out the leaderboard dynamics. King always experiment with leaderboard competitions in the summer, each and every year this happens: The workings are clearer at this time of year, then they spend the rest of the year to tweak their systems ready for All Stars and by that time the manipulations are less obvious to spot. Now is the time though. If we watch closely we can work out the patterns of how the app controls these leaderboards.
If anyone has anything interesting to share about this, now is the best chance for us to gather evidence.
One thing I have noted and that is visible above is that the multipliers seem to have no noticeable effect on the leaderboard dynamics in this round (except if we choose to use them ourselves, of course).
I'd be interested to see how other players' leaderboards compare to mine. Please do mention when you joined the round and if you remember your own position at the point when the leaderboard had just filled up to ten players.
