The Winter 2024 Competitive Cribbage Season is Live!
The Autumn 2023 season of competitive cribbage has wrapped up, and it was one for the record books! There were more players in the Autumn competitive season than we have seen in a long time. The competition was fierce, with some recognizable names in the world of cribbage also in the Leaderboard. The season started off extremely active, and just ramped up from there every week. I had thought that with the previous season being so active, many would slow down this time, but it was exactly the opposite! I know many of you noticed how busy things were, and with many new players (new to our competitive play, but clearly not new to cribbage itself) in the mix, it was very challenging.
New Season Updates
I want to quickly cover a handful of new season updates before providing a short summary of the end of the Autumn season. Some matchmaking adjustments have been made. We have tightened up the matchmaking algorithm in respect to what constitutes as an acceptable match between players of different estimated skill levels and expected match outcomes. There are several factors that the system considers when finding a match, and they have all had their limits narrowed to at least some degree. At the same time, other changes were made that will have the system progress through all possible matches just a little faster than in past seasons. Ultimately, we hope to see matches a little closer in ranking on average, and slightly fewer matches with larger skill rank differences, while also finding matches faster for everyone. Of course the best way to keep match wait times down is to continue to invite your friends to play! That is by far the biggest factor when finding a match, so do please encourage your fellow cribbage players to participate.
We have also enhanced how the "wait time" works while finding a match. Previously, if you started finding a match, then canceled and started again for any reason, your wait time in the matchmaking system would reset each time you started finding a match. That will no longer be the case. If you cancel finding a match, and then start again, the system will retain the original start time to calculate your total wait time. It will then "timeout" if no match is found based on when you first started finding a match. If you were someone who would stop and start a lot in a short period of time, and so rarely see any time out message, you may get the "no match found" message more often than before. If you were someone who would start finding a match and wait patiently, then this won't impact you at all. To further clarify, the total wait time before timing out has not changed. At 120 seconds from the first press of "Find Match", it will stop searching even if you canceled and restarted multiple times during that time. After those 2 minutes, regardless of if you saw the "no match found" message, if you start finding a match again, it will start the clock again too.
Autumn 2023 Wrap Up
Once again, my gratitude goes out to everyone who took part in the Autumn 2023 season. Your participation truly makes all the difference. Your dedication and involvement, whether or not you secured a place in the Top 50, mean a lot. Each player's contribution to our cribbage community is invaluable. Your enthusiasm and commitment elevate the competitive atmosphere, and make every match memorable and exciting. Thank you for being an essential part of this competition, and in bringing the incredible game of cribbage to others!
In 1st place for Autumn 2023, we have "Dhrun", who didn't place last season, but in the season just prior was in 2nd. They held that top spot for a while this season, and it was a tough season. "Dhrun" has also been in 2nd and 3rd place multiple times in past seasons, so it is really great to see them hit 1st place this time! 2nd place is also someone we have seen before too, but much more recently, "Saskie", who is up from 4th last season, and who was our "honorable mention" the season before. We are starting to get used to seeing them a lot around here as they had 1st a few seasons back too. 3rd place goes to "lbolt58", who was 19th last season (and 21st before that, and 29th before that), so quite an improvement! "konadive" held 3rd for a little while this season, but just couldn't quite hold on for the finish. They get our honorable mention this season.
Other interesting movements in the Top 50 included "VGKnights", up 21 places to finish 5th. "dph" moved up all the way from 48th last season to be 9th. As an interesting player note, "dph" has been playing in Cribbage Pro since at least February of 2011. They are one of a few long time players who play in the competitive system. So, a special thank you to "dph" for playing for so many years!
It was a lot of fun watching some names climb up (like "iPeg" making a late run to break into the top 10), and even fun to watch some who I thought were going to take it all, get bumped down this season. Although I'm sure it wasn't as much fun to actually be the player who dropped in standing, I hope that you all enjoyed the competition. Congratulations to you all for your putting your skills to the test!
As always, a special acknowledgment goes to those who achieved a place within the Top 50! As recognition for your efforts and display of skill, you have been awarded with an in-game "board peg" that represents your accomplishment. The top finisher is awarded the "crown" board peg, and all others in the Top 50 are awarded a "star" board peg. These pegs are shown to everyone when playing in online multiplayer games, and they are permanent, so if you see your opponent has one of them you can know that they have earned it by finishing in the Top 50 in competitive play.
Remember: Complete 10 matches per week! See the FAQ for details.
Here was the final Top 50 for Autumn 2023:
| 1 | Dhrun | 26 | dcpastore |
| 2 | Saskie | 27 | Mrpadre |
| 3 | lbolt58 | 28 | AZwriter |
| 4 | konadive | 29 | Geofred1 |
| 5 | VGKnights | 30 | networker |
| 6 | cyrusg | 31 | james500 |
| 7 | rpmcd | 32 | QuinnA |
| 8 | Muldeezee | 33 | scout3 |
| 9 | dph | 34 | ape0123 |
| 10 | iPeg | 35 | SMP0001 |
| 11 | super101 | 36 | cribfan44 |
| 12 | nob4one | 37 | GoldStar1 |
| 13 | kdkauf | 38 | 808HWK |
| 14 | locust | 39 | ovaeezy |
| 15 | elocke83 | 40 | linurbug9 |
| 16 | Br1Guy | 41 | rattle15 |
| 17 | hillchem | 42 | pegmstr77 |
| 18 | mountains | 43 | WhyADuck |
| 19 | Warpegs | 44 | DrewBlue |
| 20 | Gasman67 | 45 | TrumpetJ |
| 21 | Alaska47 | 46 | rocks19 |
| 22 | BigCrbNRG | 47 | Domerzag |
| 23 | salo25 | 48 | gmax |
| 24 | ernie313 | 49 | UberPooch |
| 25 | BrutusSt | 50 | drg151 |
