Rankings & News January 2024
January 2024 #
News #
It has been some time, I know, I know. But hey, here are some news to distract you!
- First some good news: Gilles released an update (1.4.30) which fixed the game for newer Android versions!
- Amongst the multitude of fixes we unfortunately have sometimes bugs with official CTs. Hope must not be lost though, there will be a fix at some point!
- We got another player above ee70k (duh, you could see that in the rankings but still)
- A new player (#4 on iOS 佐藤あま846592) has arrived to annoy JR again by taking the top spot for T1. JR will cease everything until he has his place back
- If anybody misses any calculators on replit, yeah so far no help. But good news: the sim 3.0 by XLII (still in development) can be used here: https://tredec.github.io/sim-3.0/
- I don’t know from where he has the energy but NGZ has added another 200 million minigame stars to his already insane 1 billion
- Develop a CT they said. It will be easy they said. (Okay, that is something no one ever said). Anyway, Propfeds is so into it, he started to write research about his own CT. If that isn’t some unexpected consequences of playing EI
- We are almost running out of places on the SL leaderboard for people who finish it. We are at 7 completions now!
- Someone might use his work on another guide for his college application. Good luck!
- We have people completing Riemann-Zeta, probably the CT with the most development time. Congratulations to all of them!
- People apply heavy maths to solve CTs, regardless if they are official. Great job on solving the best possible value for 14 updates in Collatz Conjecture (and no, I cannot explain that further)
- I got #1 for T3 by using the advanced strategy of sacrificing CT progress for TA. Well, being away changes things, doesn’t it? Just wait until I get my e600 T8 on my mian save :(
In custom theory news:
Finding custom theories besides the official ones is no easy thing. Luckily we have a document containing links and information about a large number of custom theories in different stages of development: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_VILoIE8qOxGi7UD-HiDKH95uKirGzL2UjnHva2caBo/ \
There might be updates about what was added in the future but keeping track of that might not work out so perfectly. Just look for yourself for now :)
Just to promote it, here is the theory of the month: Lemma Garden.
Go ahead, find it in the sheet and play it!
Thanks to Jo we now have this nice info about distribution of players in certain f(t) ranges:
70000: 2
69000: 13
68000: 16
67000: 21
66000: 28
65000: 39
64000: 55
63000: 60
62000: 72
61000: 84
60000: 84
59000: 113
58000: 102
57000: 95
56000: 104
55000: 112
Actually Jo has a lot of data, so there is much potential for further information. As a teaser here are three facts about January:
- birrel69 has the highest f(t) gain of the Top 50 (on Android) with ee309
- Gen managed the highest increase in f(t) in a day with ee139
- adequateryan increased f(t) the most times with 19 changes
Obligatory plea for feedback: If anyone has ideas, please let me (and/or the guide team) know. If you have criticism do it as well. If you don’t want to end up in any news/rankings outside the server, then contact me so I could either exclude or anonymise you.
Rankings #
So after once again avoiding the rankings in favor of news for a bit (and being extra late anyway; not in this edition but overall), it is finally time for the update!
January 2024 Top 20 on the leaderboard, their \(F(t)\) at the time the list was compiled and their Discord connection (Discord names in brackets are not their nicknames!):
- HeadedArt26 (Playspout) - ee70512:
If you ever looked at the record sheet you should know him because he’s literally on top everywhere there (well, except apparently 7/8 of the original theories on main save).
Also pretty active here on the server, doing everything imaginable!
Added fun fact: did ee50000 without T9. I wonder if there is anything he isn’t active in^^
Playspout is the Ling Ling of Exponential
IdleActive with 40 hours a day (and more saves than any person should have) and still searching for new theory strats and writing and and and.Having established a firm lead the only question to remain seems: will Playspout lose some motivation and allow someone else to get close? So could you slow down please?
There is one challenger now and his pace seems a bit slower. So who knwos, what will happen?
- VintageSurfer56606 (kinger55) - ee70400:
He has discovered the main reason to be on the server: the tau bot^^ Well, that joke lost its meaning a lot of months ago but it is hard to let go^^
Else he’s not really participating (unless I ask for a tau update and recently not even then…) but he’s a force on the leaderboard for sure. He certainly figured out CTs and firmly planted himself in the Top 3 now.
Having distanced everybody else, the question remains: can he do the same for Playspout in the future?
- (+1) Eldrail (AfuroZamurai) - ee69852:
Always a bit difficult to write about oneself^^ Activity here is more in phases but at least pretty regularly (so hopefully
dailyweekly), in the game I do like my idle theories (who could’ve guessed?).Favourite phrase: Time for active theories I guess^^ (while not doing that until I set myself a challenge). Also loves chess.
I did get #1 in the rankings last year but without actually ever being #1…! Too bad Playspout showed up again before the cheater ahead of me was removed. I guess I’ll have to keep hunting!
Note: hunting can be defined broadly and this absolutely
inefficient phase of idle is certainly just a long-term plot to regain my #1 spot for real. Totally.Well, yeah, about that… I’m back to being the Idle Lord and have found my fun in that. Still trying though, just not very hard. I even managed to push f(t) a bit. Watch out everyone ;)
- (+1) colinc719 (?) - ee69815:
They were maybe the biggest surprise when entering the rankings, shooting up from somewhere I cannot even remember directly into the Top 20 and never looking back. We cannot even know more about them because it looks like they are still not on the server. Maybe the future will give us more (so far not).
For now they just entered Top 10 after first disappearing for a bit from the leaderboards completely and made clear Top 10 was just a step on the way. I feel scared…
Having overtaken me already inbetween, I feel it is only a matter of time before Top 3 is their spot.
- (+1) ReckonCrew (ReckonCrew) - ee69774:
They have all their messages on the server from a single day about 33 months ago, which is an achievement in itself I guess^^
Actually cannot find them anymore, maybe because of the Discord name update? Or maybe because Discord sometimes doesn’t want to actually search.
Not much else to say except they are pretty stable, mainly gaining a place now and then (and sometimes losing one). I do like stable players for this ranking^^
- (+4) birrel69 (birrel) - ee69756:
The rival of d4Nf6Bg5 (or rather the involuntary rival). While at first falling behind, he has long made his move and passed him for a rising spot in the rankings.
He popped up on the server to announce his entry into the Top 20, only to be overtaken again before the rankings was made. For now he’s safely in utilizing the same strat of having 2 saves.
Sometimes he shows up and exchanges some words with his rival, staying committed to the strategy of not sharing information, instead preferring to use what we find to better climb. Well, its not like anything is forced and in the end it depends on how you play your save, so on you go!
After being on the edge of the Top 10, he has turned on overdrive. Scary stuff, with no end in sight so far.
- GenErationNation (Gen) - ee69661:
With a heavy hard I have to report that the Juggernaut has slowed down and maybe no longer is the Juggernaut. Still pretty strong though^^
Maybe not at the absolute top for CTs (though I think in terms of efficiency he actually is or at least very close) and maybe suffered a bit in originals but still going strong enough with accel (the madman^^) to have more f(t) than one would expect.
It is still so weird to see him lower but to be fair: rankings have always changed over time. I wonder where he’ll settle down…
- d4Nf6Bg5 (d4Nf6Bg5) - ee69614:
He’s been on the server and the rankings hunt for a while. A long while actually. According to him surely every day he wasn’t in the Top 20 too long.
If you know chess notation you can deduce from his name he’s a chess player (you can go as far as allow him his self-proclaimed expert status given his 2500+ lichess rating^^). As I’m something of a chess player myself I already like that^^
Being driven by his desire to finally reach the rankings but hindered by competition, long times for small gains and not much desire to actually cash in on the actives, he decided to do a first here at the top (at least as far as we know): he split his saves. One of them is going for the long haul and the other - this one - got the theory automator running 24/7 for the short-term gain.
After a looong time he has managed to combine two things: overtaking birrel and doing it while entering the Top 10. Congratulations!
Top 10 persisted but birrel eludes him ones more. Will he catch up again?
- (+4) IntellectualPower112 (NGZ001) - ee69524:
Over a year ago he already had an honourable mention. I wrote:
Let’s hope at some point in the future he can enter the rankings to join his friends on the leaderboard (XLII already showed the way^^)!
He was far behind but with his activity and passion I wasn’t surprised to finally see him enter the Top 20!
Back then he started to appear a bit more in the server and especially for custom theories. He certainly continued this trend.
Very impressive minigamer, second to probably none, having passed 1 billion minigame stars by a fair margin.
Equally impressive in custom theories, second only to Playspout and not by much.
Here is one player I can see rise more and more, with the Top 10 only the beginning!
- (-1) UpArtz (?) - ee69468:
Seems to be active on Reddit but not here, though this is unclear.
They were already out of the Top 20 and were often on the edge but because of that I’m even more impressed by their fighting spirit, seeing the gap closing to actually entering the single digits! Applause for reaching the Top 10!
- some gibberish I won’t even try typewriting[name may change any second] (nubest) - ee69419:
She has been a long time member of this server, with quite a lot of messages a name to know. Maybe not the founder but excessive user of a rather unusual kind of text emoji: ouo and variations of it.
She also likes to call hax and people bad which seems to correlate with her orthographic skills.
Unfortunately life came in the way and besides a pause on the server her leaderboard placement was suffering for it. Fortunately she is now back!
Potentially her competitors are too active now, though she is still pretty high up. Maybe its the cat emojis^^ Or the elaborate strategies which are surely not active because nub only idles, sure.
Looks like the competition isn’t making life easy but never count her off!
- (-9) AdamH99 (nemesis) - ee69402:
Found the server some while ago and no longer an unknown! Looks like he is going fast and steady, there we have someone on a mission…
So for quite a while now he is consistent in doing hardcore active pushing and so I just hope
he loses motivationhe continues to go strong. Good at minigames!I’m pretty sure he had the number 1 spot for a brief while inbetween, so good for him
(and time to stop)!Also whatever EI steroids he’s on, I think I’d need them too^^ I mean at some point he’ll have to pay the price of not overpushing but that spirit is commendable.
Also come back please to Discord and share your secrets…
Also has not updated for quite a while. Oh no… I hope he didn’t read the strikethrough parts and took them by heart :(
- (-1) hotab1 (hotab) - ee69270:
I have a vague feeling he shouldn’t have been in when I first included him but well, now he’s in for sure.
Right now he’s the one player listed on all 8 main save theories on the record sheet (wow).
I’ll be interested to see if he can keep up the pace or if pushing T6 will cost him at some point. Note: always push theories. Wait, that seems pretty obvious.
- (+1) AramakiSH (?) - ee69114:
Another mystery person. I knew they were already somewhat close before stopping to update f(t) for over 2 months. I guess this is also a way to reappear!
Outside of this I have no idea about them at all. Maybe they’ll show up somewhere (or somebody else knows more). For now it’s just admiring the rise and see if it will be a future problem to write about^^
The future is here but not like I have anything to add…
- (-1) Finalultima (Finalultima) - ee69097:
While they showed up a day before the rankings they got into the Top 20 in “real” Discord conversations (after some month of talking with the tau bot!) activity is still almost negligible but happy to have them and looking forward to seeing more!
Amazing fast progress and now the gap to close is pretty big. Still an impressive achievement getting here and after seeing their distribution I have no doubt it is fully deserved! Though others aren’t here to settle down either…
Looks like maybe this was the height for now. But okay, little activity could mean a burst coming later. Or the competition is too brutal.
- (new) EdgeOfDreams (EdgeOfDreams) - ee68933:
Another new entry! And this time an active Discord user - at least this was somewhat true when the last rankings came out. Hopefully this wasn’t it…
A lot of messages were in channels helping newer players, so sad to see no messages since October.
Currently the holder of the T7 main save top spot by a decent margin.
- adequateryan (adequate ryan) - ee68928:
Entered a few month ago. But who do we welcome into our ranks? I have no idea as they are seemingly on the server but with a whooping 0 messages so far.
While I always feel a bit of sadness seeing veteran players fall, I do like new players coming in, showing all is fluid and you can catch up.
Now I wonder if they’ll stay or even rise or maybe even more surprisingly start to talk on the server!
So far only rise and no talk… Or no rise and no talk… Or no talk and fall… This is covering every change, so my work here is done.
- (new) AbsoPerf (?) - ee68893:
This time I can only say that they hovered near the Top 20 for a long time. Active play with lots of pushes seems to finally be the recipe for progress.
There is no server presence, so nothing more to say so far.
- (new) NeirinD (Neirin) - ee68770:
Third new entry, this is definitely a record. While the leaderboard name seems to be changing quite often (I know at least three different ones), they have a server account as well.
Not too much messages but hey, that is still more than 0 of others!
The following quote describes life here very well: “it’s very slow now”. I hope it is not too slow for an exit next time!
- (-2) Melv0r (Melv0r) - ee68741:
I have a vague feeling he should’ve been already in a month before I included him, considering my notes on f(t) but hey, he’s here now!
It has been a while since he was seen on the server, with messages dating back to 2021 making him an old veteran but still below a hundred messages. But what matters for this ranking is not activity in the server (though still nice) but activity in the game. And there he fought his way up and up until he got into this prestigious list.
Now it’s time to see if he can hold his place! Close shave but for now he stays.
Some enter the list and so some have to leave the list as well. Here are our fallen fellows from this month:
- (-2) jgaumer (jgaumer) - ee68726:
The most recent addition to the Top 20! It is even someone on the server - with a whooping 3(!) messages dating back to 2021.
It has been a long time since asking for variable autobuy amounts (looks like switching from x25 to x1 or max has helped) but besides showing up here, I know nothing.
Since the start of the year at rank 26 or higher, so no sudden stellar uprise (though +3 to get here is nothing to scoff at). Will that be enough to stay? Yes for now!
Well, that is that. Nothing new I know but for now the race is lost. But as the distance isn’t so great, the chance for a comeback seems still high enough.
- (-7) BlackSeal94 (BlackSeal) - ee68575:
Seldom seen here but was always great to see him update his insane T6 stat (good old times…)^^ Custom theories had kind of awoken him to be more active on the server, which was nice. Nowadays activity is going down all around…
He was so high on the ladder and now it’s going down. Can he turn it up a gear or was that it?
Unfortunately another one of the old ones has fallen. My hope of an awakening is low because the last update has been a while.
- (-6) Antharion1988 (Antharion) - ee68349:
The original legend, longtime #1, creator of the original tau simulator and sadly not that active anymore (both in the game and on the server), though we can still see him (and he’s certainly not given up^^) from time to time.
The times where he actually got back into the Top 10 are long gone and now the moment another former #1 is dropping out is getting closer. But not all hope is lost still!
I fear hope is lost at some point after all. He fought long but now I think it will be the final mention of him here on this list :(
An honourable mention goes to #
- (on iOS) neasi_cz (neasi) - ee69408:
A not that new face anymore on the top of the iOS leaderboard! Having overtaken Phask and finally getting to rank 1 after a long hunt, he’s fast increased his lead.
He is not that active on the server but not unknown either. Maybe we’ll see him more in the future?
It might be possible we have in him somebody who is ready to challenge the established overall Top 10 hold by Android players, though it is still to early to say that. But still, he did once again reach his all-time high of #12 on the combined leaderboard.
I have to say: I’m rooting for him!
- (on iOS) アケローン川に住む入道坊主 (?) - ee68599:
There isn’t much I can say except he has been playing catch-up since quite a while until finally getting on here.
My glorious Japanese skills were enough to read the first part as “Acheron river”. Seems the rest means a (young?) monk living there, according to my research.
Or I could wait for someone to provide a better translation: Nyūdō monk who lives on the Acheron River (no guarantee for being right).
And in the end it is of course time for the “real” honourable mention (please nominate someone with a reason for future inclusion of players if you have somebody in mind) as the iOS players are technically in the Top 20 rankings (or represent the top of the iOS leaderboard):
I don’t have a player but I guess a shoutout to all who still believed in news happening, so here they are again! Thanks for not losing hope!