Competitive Cribbage - Autumn 2022 Season

The Autumn 2022 Season of Competitive Cribbage is Live!

The Summer 2022 season is in the books, and all stats are locked in and recorded. I'll keep the intro short this season, as I have some ideas to share after the important details about last season. If you are most interested in that, then scroll down past the first table on this post.

The Top 50 has quite a few players new in the mix. I love seeing new players come in and make a run for it! Thank you to all for participating and bringing your friends! Thank you also to everyone who participated at every level, even if you didn't make the final Top 50. Don't forget to invite your friends to compete and see who really is the best cribbage player!

In 1st place for Summer 2022, we have "ThreeG" (welcome back)! 2nd place is "iPeg" (so close, yet...) In 3rd we have "TC2", who was in 25th last season, but has been near the top a few times now as well (see below). Other interesting movements in the Top 50 included "dkatz1877" who moved up 45 places from last season to be 4th, "bbaer1" up 29 to 8th place, "cyrusg" up 22 to 10th and of course the many new faces who are scattered throughout the Top 50 this season who fought particularly hard in the final days of the season to make the cut! Congratulations!!

Everyone who finished the season in the Top 50 ("Recent" list), has been awarded both a special in-game "board peg" as well as Cribbage Pro Gold that can be used in the Cribbage Pro Contests system and then redeemed for cash (awards must be used at least once in a Contest to be cashed out to USDC, see the full terms and conditions for details). The Gold awards do expire, so use them or lose them! If you are awarded Gold, and are not sure what it is good for (or how to access the Contests system), read through the links above or email us any time if you have questions. On iOS you will need the "Cribbage Pro Contests" version of the app, and on Android you need to install the game using the Amazon Appstore. The Cribbage Pro Gold awards are as follows (not cumulative):

• 4 Gold for Top 50
• 7 Gold for Top 25
• 10 Gold for Top 10
• 20 Gold for 3rd Place
• 30 Gold for 2nd Place
• 50 Gold for 1st Place

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 Summer 2022:

1	ThreeG	26	bigshane0
2	iPeg	27	scoot1234
3	TC2	28	seachica
4	dkatz1877	29	Paludeja
5	VGKnights	30	zackzoey
6	nob4one	31	Doksboy
7	Mrpadre	32	bj1949
8	bbaer1	33	Trucha1
9	rattle15	34	cribfan44
10	cyrusg	35	Dempegs
11	Dhrun	36	yank29
12	lbolt58	37	Chelsea64
13	mountains	38	BrutusSt
14	TempestN	39	JonKneeGo
15	2CRIBKING	40	Gssj21
16	pileated	41	jjonell
17	Yompopo	42	MondoMan
18	Mharold	43	viclen
19	kb92129	44	flashmatt
20	Lapete88	45	Domerzag
21	ernie313	46	nvsru911
22	medzy	47	hillchem
23	Geofred1	48	SH00TER
24	fpster	49	pscohen
25	sheepman	50	1bh1

The levels in Competitive Matchmaking are available in the FAQ.

Top Competitive Cribbage Stats

Recently I was asked a question related to the top players in competitive cribbage, and it got me thinking about how things have gone over the last 9 seasons (yes, it has been that long - 10 if you count the "beta test" season). This led me to wonder who has been at the very top throughout all of these 9 seasons. Here are a few tables that focus on just the top 3 of the list over all of the seasons.

Who has been in the Top 3 how many times (out of 9 total seasons)?:

Player	Count
iPeg	6
Dhrun	5
TC2	3
ThreeG	3
dkatz1877	2
BigD4Life	1
cyrusg	1
ernie313	1
kb92129	1
Mrpadre	1
nob4one	1
Nytric456	1
PegSurfer	1

Who has been in the Top 3 by final rank?:

Rank	Player	Count
1	iPeg	4
1	ThreeG	3
1	Mrpadre	1
1	Nytric456	1
2	Dhrun	2
2	iPeg	2
2	BigD4Life	1
2	cyrusg	1
2	ernie313	1
2	PegSurfer	1
2	TC2	1
3	Dhrun	3
3	dkatz1877	2
3	TC2	2
3	kb92129	1
3	nob4one	1

There are multiple ideas (as shared by a few of you), about what to do with this list. One possibility is to run a "Tournament of Champions" for everyone on the list (or maybe just some, or add everyone from the Top 5 instead of 3). There are several variations on this idea, but in order to prioritize it as something to consider, I would really like to know what everyone thinks.

Please either comment here or email and let us know what you think. Could a tournament be fun to see done in some way, even if you are not on the list? If you are on this list and are interested, send us an email confirming your interest. Lastly, assuming there is interest in a tournament of some kind, would you be interested in watching the games live as they happen (streamed live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, etc)? If you think that would be awesome, and if you would want to participate in some other way (say, to add color commentary as I'm not sure anyone wants to hear my voice announce the games), let me know. Again, please add your thoughts in the comments or share via email. I will say that I personally find the idea of watching a live game against these players pretty interesting, but that might just be me.

As a reminder, if you have played here and have some thoughts on what you would like to see around prizes, structure or anything else, please email us at support@FullerSystems.com with your suggestions.

Competitive Cribbage - Summer 2022

It is time for the Cribbage Pro Summer 2022 Season of Competitive Matchmaking! If you are here primarily for what is new/changed, then scroll down to the final "News for The New Season" section below. The Spring 2022 season has fully wrapped up, and as usual it was entertaining to watch the rise and fall of different players throughout the season again. I still find myself cheering for different players on and off throughout the season. I admit I also often wish I could personally participate, but  we have a rule that employees/contractors are prohibited from this and Contest play (and from the leaderboards entirely, in case you were wondering).

The Top 50 had quite a few new faces yet again this season. It is great to see all the new challengers working so hard to make their way to the top! Everyone loves an underdog, I suppose. Things just seem to be getting more and more competitive, so thank you to all for participating and bringing your friends! Thank you also to everyone who participated in this great game of cribbage, even if you didn't quite make the Top 50. I hope you enjoyed the journey.

In 1st place for Spring 2022, we have "Mrpadre" for the first time! It is nice to see Mrpadre back this season, as they were in the top 10 last season as well! 2nd place is "ernie313", and ernie313 has been in the Top 50 many times in the past as well, finishing last season at 33rd. In 3rd we have "Dhrun", who was in 2nd last season and also becoming a regular around these parts. Other interesting movements in the Top 50 included "WhyADuck" who has placed in the Top 50 before, but wasn't there last season and is 4th this season, and "Br1Guy" who we have definitely seen before, moving up just a bit from 13th to 9th! "scoot1234" came up from 28th last season to finish 19th this season, while "jjonell" came from 42nd to finish 36th.

Everyone who finished the season in the Top 50 ("Recent" list), has been awarded both a special in-game "board peg" as well as Cribbage Pro Gold that can be used in the Cribbage Pro Contests system and then redeemed for cash (awards must be used at least once in a Contest to be cashed out to USDC, see the full terms and conditions for details). If you are awarded Gold, and are not sure what it is good for (or how to access the Contests system), read through the links above or email us any time if you have questions. On iOS you will need the "Cribbage Pro Contests" version of the app, and on Android you need to install the game using the Amazon Appstore. As it looks like many are not using the Cribbage Pro Gold they win (which makes it kind of a useless prize for them), this part of the prize may change for the Summer 2022 winners (please email us your suggestions). The Cribbage Pro Gold awards are as follows (not cumulative):

• 4 Gold for Top 50
• 7 Gold for Top 25
• 10 Gold for Top 10
• 20 Gold for 3rd Place
• 30 Gold for 2nd Place
• 50 Gold for 1st Place

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 Spring 2022:

1	Mrpadre	26	koala29
2	ernie313	27	nvsru911
3	Dhrun	28	Domerzag
4	WhyADuck	29	gotupeggd
5	Gssj21	30	wfdove
6	nob4one	31	aela
7	iPeg	32	cyrusg
8	scout3	33	sagdog16
9	Br1Guy	34	Dempegs
10	shudbgolf	35	Legonaut
11	wightness	36	jjonell
12	PALONSO	37	bbaer1
13	236Postie	38	farleysma
14	VGKnights	39	pscohen
15	Cutch13	40	Paludeja
16	hillchem	41	vhray
17	nhguy	42	IAMFAST
18	hunterIT	43	Buikemad
19	scoot1234	44	SH00TER
20	cribfan44	45	james500
21	lbolt58	46	dph
22	UberPooch	47	jehcjehc
23	BigD4Life	48	brewski42
24	jwr13	49	dkatz1877
25	TC2	50	yank29

The levels in Competitive Matchmaking are available in the FAQ.

News for The New Season

Some of you have been asking, and patiently waiting, for some bigger changes. However, there will not be big changes for this season.

During the Spring 2022 season, while you were all playing (and we were watching all the ups and downs and crunching the numbers), we spent a lot of time working on several different ways to bring ideas around a single game match to the competitive system. The idea was to lighten the games required, and the time needed to participate, as not everyone is able to do so with a 3 game match. Ultimately, it just didn't work out as hoped, and so we couldn't release it.

We worked through several different ways to try to provide for a single game match, but in testing and analysis, it just could never provide good results. What I mean by that is our system simply could not accurately isolate the skill from the luck with just a single game, even if the total number of games played went up significantly (which it is also unclear if that would be the case). Playing more games against other players just doesn't compensate. This means, among other criteria, that it couldn't accurately predict the winner (meaning the skill calculated isn't good enough), or then subsequently calculate the skill rank adjustments to be made reliably as a result, when tested against real world game data. Either the skill ranking system we use (even with various tweaks/changes to it), or the game of cribbage itself, just doesn't allow for it to happen. I personally try to hold a high standard for everything we do, and if anything can't be shown to meet or exceed that standard, no matter if we have spent a lot of effort on it, we will not release it.

As we have tested lots of different skill ranking systems before selecting the one used today, I honestly don't think that is the problem, but likely this is just the nature of cribbage that there can often be a non-trivial amount of luck in a single game. Frankly, the "Best of 3" isn't perfect (and I think there are things we can still do to help more there), but given the limitations (like the amount of time people can play), it ends up being a good compromise. So, because of all that time working on these things that didn't result in changes this season, we decided to not make any other core changes. There just wasn't enough time. There are some minor things, but mostly just around making the system more reliable, and bug fixes. So, we have decided to put this task aside for now, and to move on to other improvements that many are also asking for.

As a reminder, if you have played a few seasons here and have some thoughts on what you would like to see around prizes, structure or anything else, please email us at support@FullerSystems.com with your suggestions.