Beta 3.x
Once again: Low activity for me. I wish to find the time to play but at least I am happy if I can keep up with forum, stats and some chat as enough information are out there even without playing.
It seems that the players that improved a lot thanks to beta 3 in terms of score difference from reference players (example: bockwurst) see aoi, gtresd, mumpsimus and others; those player can keep themselves pretty close to the top compared to some weeks ago. For example some weeks ago aoi was 2400 and Bockwurst was over 3000. Now Bockwurst is 3200 but aoi is around 3000. From 600+ to 200 points of difference.
This may be due to still non-beta3 compatible ghosts in the range 2400-3000, that are relatively easily farmed by a top actual AIs, but could also be that top players converting to beta 3 didn't find yet some subtle but crucial details that distance them greatly from all the others GM active players. Aside from Rainin. Rainin is pretty stable at 3400. 3400 was touched by gtresd as first strong player farming all the non-beta3-compatible ghosts but since then a lot of time passed and others adapted. Still he keeps being hard to beat, so hat off for Rainin at the moment.
Side note: Gtresd, although falling from 3400, still keeps a very respectable 3200. So not far from the top. Before he was 2400/2500 and the top was 3000+.
The unranked mode is now more competitive than before (before, for those in Master and GM I believe, it was quite relaxed, with plenty of opponents from very low leagues) and it may impact the activity in ranked or also the quality of ranked ghosts as those can be tested "without leaving independent ghosts" in unranked. We will see. The expectation is that the higher the league, the higher (although only a little) the quality of the ghost being released by a player after every unranked session.
Sephirot (from Russia, see Discord) confirms themselves a top player as it can hold jakwins, bockwurst, milhunter and other players that - see the hall of fame - earned to be called "strong" ones.
In general, and this was true since the last two or three weeks, all the leagues have plenty of ghosts competitive enough for their score while GM has still some sort of gap.
Until 2300 there are enough competitive ghosts. Between 2400 and 3000 there are several ghosts that are still not beta3 compatible. Around 2800 there are again enough beta3 compatible ghosts.
This will be interesting as when those 2400-3000 partially-broken-ghosts will be farmed and disabled that gap will be harder to climb, potentially leaving two isolated player groups for a while. Anyway that will take time as there few players that are going through that range. One of this is dh! at the moment (DH! was strong in the past, they are still adapting since the introduction of ghosts).
Also some info about the ghosts (as GFX improved a lot also the ghosts stats page).
The point that the gap 2400-3000 seems easier than expected is confirmed by the fact that a lot of ghosts beta3 compatible (but released in previous versions) that were around 2400-2700 climbed as well without receiving any update.
Sollniss ghost from 2300 is stable at 2900.
Tortuga ghost from 2600 or 2700 is stable at 3000.
Bhead from 3100 is stable at 3300.
RitterRunkel from 2700 is stable at 3100.
2018-12-01
2018-12-07
3458 443045 Rainin
3249 572564 sephirot
3213 384255 gtresd
3194 392426 Bockwurst
3049 357645 aoi
2987 278755 mumpsimus
2904 393328 elvenmonky2
2460 494602 SpartacJesus
2341 251352 dh!
2173 616613 KaesebrotKiller
2142 411652 thecommonpigeon
2122 546275 Franyo
2068 564813 vanadio
2018-12-08
2018-12-14
3453 443045 Rainin
3325 434900 jakwins
3322 572564 sephirot
3272 392426 Bockwurst
3240 219108 milkhunter
2450 251352 dh!
2239 616613 KaesebrotKiller
2177 564813 vanadio
2125 377728 viva2
2023 568738 M4L4