Competitive Cribbage - Autumn 2025

The summer heat is fading (for some of us) as autumn in the Northern Hemisphere approaches - perfect cribbage weather. The Autumn 2025 Season of Cribbage Pro Competitive Matchmaking begins now!

Summer 2025 was our first season with the improved ranking system and our most active summer ever in terms of both players and games played. Our first full Competitive Cribbage season concluded in August 2020, so this autumn marks five years of competitive play in Cribbage Pro. Overall the season was a success, and we did see a few outliers we want to mitigate. Below you’ll find a quick results recap for Summer 2025, followed by the changes being implemented.

Summer 2025

As the Cribbage Pro competitive matchmaking continues to evolve and grow as the largest cribbage tournament anywhere in the world, I'm always so very grateful for all of you and your continued support, suggestions and participation. Truly, thank you!

The final official Summer 2025 results, have "Casper238" securing 1st place, with an impressive run of wins in various "spurts" throughout the season which resulted in a high final win rate (although a lower number of total matches - more on that below). 2nd place went to "ThreeG" (a past 1st place finisher in what was then just called "Season 3"), with "AJackOLit" (past 18th place finisher) rounding out the top three. Several others in the Top 50 will definitely look familiar, while once again several are new. Congratulations to all on their performance this season!

Special awards for the Top 50 players include in-game board pegs: the top player receives the "crown" peg, while others in the Top 50 get the "star" peg. These pegs are prominently displayed in online multiplayer games, serving as permanent badges of distinction earned through competitive play.

Reminder: Complete 10 matches per week! See the FAQ for details on the timing each week

Here was the final Top 50 for Summer 2025:

1	Casper238**		26	mrmodesty
2	ThreeG		27	Kragner
3	AJackOLit		28	glitch123
4	Dhrun		29	RatKing
5	Mrpadre		30	WhyADuck
6	chmartin9		31	wrader
7	cribfan44		32	Paludeja
8	TC2		33	TedyKGB
9	nob4one		34	Lats44
10	iPeg		35	gmric5
11	Meow80		36	tbrasa
12	mntwinsbb		37	dph
13	TrumpetJ		38	warrior14
14	niltes		39	MC2b
15	MPD123		40	pscohen
16	mm1515		41	PeggyBree
17	808HWK		42	flashmatt
18	Grandude		43	caconle
19	SaraJWS90		44	hawkeyewn
20	DAiello		45	scottniq
21	phoggy10		46	Domerzag
22	drg151		47	Lyle912
23	catpat		48	kpcrib123
24	Drumman		49	tsiege05
25	noskunkie		50	logana89

The levels in Competitive Matchmaking are available in the FAQ.

Updates & Changes in Autumn 2025

First, a quick note: over the past few months I've focused on backend/system work and other behind-the-scenes items, so some new features aren't quite ready. Most of that less visible work is behind us now (though always ongoing), so I'm shifting back to feature development and expect to bring some exciting additions to Cribbage Pro by the end of the year or early 2026. I’m also planning a Beta so some of you can jump in early.

As mentioned earlier, Summer 2025 produced a few outlier results during the season and in the final standings. A handful of players appeared on the Leaderboard with relatively low total match counts, and usually very high win rates attributable to a mix of variance/luck and skill. However, lower volume makes rankings less reliable than we'd like. In fact, the season's 1st-place finisher had an unusually low number of total matches.

We don't change rules mid-season, so we let Summer play out. Still, when this happens, the system isn't optimally limiting variance/luck and highlighting skill. It needs more matches to do that effectively. To improve this, we're adding a cumulative minimum matches rule for Leaderboard eligibility, in addition to the existing "10 matches per week you play" participation rule:

• New rule: To appear on the Leaderboard, you must have played at least 10 × (full weeks completed since the season start) total matches (UTC).

How this works for Autumn 2025:

The season starts at midnight Wednesday, August 20 (UTC). Those first four days (Wed–Sat) form a short week with no weekly 10-match requirement (as usual) and no cumulative minimum.

• First full week: Sun Aug 24 – Sat Aug 30 → 1 full week → minimum 10 total matches starting 23:59:59 Sat (UTC).

• Each week after: adds +10 to the total minimum (week 2 = 20, week 3 = 30, etc.).

• Season length: 12 full weeks → final cumulative minimum 120 matches.

• Last days (Sun–Tue) are a closing short week with no minimum, useful for catch-up.

Since it came up a few times this season, here’s a bit more color on the Summer winner, "Casper238". They didn't wait until the end for a lucky sprint. They started near the beginning in May, played several top players, took breaks, returned, and repeated. They did incur the weekly-minimum penalty a few times, but recovered by winning (often 2–0) against strong opponents; their losses were roughly split between 0–2 and 1–2. How much of that was luck vs. skill? We can't say definitively, and it would be unfair to call it all "just luck." Casper238, I hope you, and everyone, return for Autumn to see how this new minimum plays out.

Finally, several asked what would have changed if a rule like this had already been in place. Numerically, not much beyond a few positions: the 1st-place finisher would have been ineligible, "ThreeG" would move to 1st, and a couple of others below the Top 50 would miss out for not meeting the minimum. That shift would bump some players up in ways we recognize as "meaningful" (e.g., "Meow80" into the Top 10, "AJackOLit" to 2nd and "Dhrun" into 3rd) and open a Top 50 spot, which will be our honorable mention for "scotiagir". Most players were already well above the new minimum, so movement would have been modest overall.

As always, thank you all so much for participating and for your suggestions that keep improving the game for everyone!