Do all the top all time ELO Catan-players play together...?

[Basil Bazaroff]

I realised how hard it is to get above 300 ELO in Catan, so I wanted to learn how the top-ELO-players play the game.

I was stunned to find out that the 8 from the ten best Catan-ELO-players (all of them > 500 ELO) needed only 10-20 games to get into the top 10.

Then I looked closer, reviewed a few games, and saw that a lot of them play against each other in one 4player-game - and 8 out of the top 10 speak Japanese (though they come from all over the world, Europe, Africa, Asia, according to their flags...)

The reviews of the games show that 3 players (all of them >450 ELO) team up against one 1xx or 2xx ELO-player. Rob just him. And the leading players make - from my point of view - insane trades with each other.

The top Catan-ELO player - when looking into his profile - is already accused of "He plays on 3 accounts during the game! SHAME!"

This can't be fun. But what is the reason?

Thx for reading,

Basil

[Charles Marlow]

BGA doesn't care. Elo is a joke to them.

[GoCougs83]

Interesting insight...do they also play Variable numbers? What a joke...why do people play that way...seems to primarily target to luck vs. good Catan strat

[Stonecoldore]

The only way cheaters/kingmakers can operate their way and cheat is if one of them has a premium account to create table otherwise they’d not easily get into a table together to dupe others.
Now why would BGA do anything if this is a reason for them for getting more memberships. Imho, there are more premium accounts who fall into the kingmaking criteria than genuine players with premium accounts. Do the math

[Avocadosxn]

just played with the "persons" you mention. 1 player with 3 accounts all ELO 500-600, from the 1st round they trade 3-5 cards for 1, only move the robber to you. In theirs profiles everyone mentioned they are cheaters. Reported them but if they cared they would have already banned them

[Jontia]

Give them a red thumb and move on.
ELO is not a universal truth, just treat it as a track for you. If it goes up, you're getting better. If it goes down, you have mistakes to learn from.

ELO is mostly related to number of games played anyway. It climbs further and faster if you play more, even while there are others with half your score beating you each time you play together.

[Tonykoko1978]

Same problem with the no. 1 player of Catan! I played with him and another account (ELO 100). I was near to win after a nice game, but when i was signing last point he disconnected the fake account to avoid excessive down of points. It's a very shaming that admins approve this mode of play! i don't mind for stupid 200-300 ELO accounts, but is not accetable from the first of the game!

[euklid314]

Same problem with the no. 1 player of Catan! I played with him and another account (ELO 100). I was near to win after a nice game, but when i was signing last point he disconnected the fake account to avoid excessive down of points. It's a very shaming that admins approve this mode of play! i don't mind for stupid 200-300 ELO accounts, but is not accetable from the first of the game!

This sort of cheating is most effective in 3-player games.

The player that you are talking about has played mainly 4-player since your encounter with him. But in all these (approx. 20) games he has always had one same opponent. And before your game he played a lot with the other opponent that you had in your 3-player game. Thus it really looks fishy - these two opponents could be two dummy accounts of his main account.

All you have to do now is analyze at least 3 games and look if the same opponent was constantly playing suboptimally to help his main account. If this was the case in all 3 games you analyze you can well assume that the 2nd player is a fake account of his and he is boosting ELO. This is reportable ("using 2 accounts to cheat the ELO system", I think it is called).

Yes this is some tedious work but it needs to be done if you want to remove the player. There are many false accusations and only a moderation report that is based with facts that prove your case without reasonable doubt will finally lead to moderation and punishments.