Not exactly. Perhaps WesleyCrusher or someone else in administration can clarify this further, but my understanding is that the Top 30 rule applies only to those who are *not* already Immortal. However, there is a second issue that we have been discussing for some time that will probably become apparent on this run, and that is the run will stop when 100 *total* players in Normal mode become Immortal. As an example, say that on the last day of the run, there are only 20 players in the Normal mode Top 100 who have reached Division 10 (Immortal), but the other 80 players in the Normal mode Top 100 have all also reached Division 10. Then the run should stop, even though there will only be 20 New Immortals. If I have this right, those 20 will get awarded an Immortal badge at the end of the run (at Tier 1), and the other 80 on the list would be promoted to Tier 2. And those on the Hardcore Top 100 list would receive badges or Tier promotions in the Hardcore Winner badge depending on their positions at the time the run ended, but I'm not as sure as to how that will work on the Hardcore end. My point is this: Previous Immortals do not compete *directly* with new Immortals in the traditional Top 30, but they may end up "crowding out" the Normal mode Top 100 list, causing fewer than 30 new Immortals to be created at the end of the run, so in that respect, there is the possibility of an "indirect competition" between old and new Immortals affecting when the run ends.

Thanks it is a wonder isn't it.

The badge will still be given to 30 new Immortals (who do not own it at all yet) unless we exceed 100 Immortals overall (new and repeating combined). Nothing changes in that regard.

Everyone repeating Immortal (or placing ahead of the 10th new Hardcore Winner on the Hardcore side) will receive credit towards tier advancement.

Thank you Wesley.

Thank you, Wes. Crisis averted.

I did play all of one set, all 54 options, but with a very tired and heavy finger hovering over my Impossible set, I hit "Enter" after answering only 2 questions, so it didn't count. That didn't help.

But I can see that I now have the opportunity to play my second half of June 3, right now.

Like I said, I feel like a little kid. I didn't get excited when this round didn't start on Monday -- thing happen -- but having a set I was certain I played not show up sent me into a panic.

This is the first time I've taken Globals this seriously, and not just played casually. I think I "get it" now.

Thank you so much for assuaging my panic! I promise to remain calm, or mostly calm, throughout the rest of these Globals.

Okay, wait... I still don't have the second half of June 2 showing on my Results Page! I absolutely played that set. I haven't missed a set since this round of Globals started, because this is the first time I've decided to make a serious run at going all the way.

And I can see the first half of June 3, and I've just played the second half of June 3, and realize those stats won't show up yet, but what the heck happened to the second half of June 2???

This can't really be this difficult, can it? What on earth am I doing wrong? I swear to God I have not missed a set! I think it all went off the deep end during the set when I hit "Enter" after only playing 2 questions in my Impossible game, due to exhaustion.

I know I haven't missed a single set. So, where is the second half of June 2?

This isn't like not having one of my Daily Challenges not awarded when I needed just a 6 letter word, or more, in Word Wizard, and scored a 10-letter word that wasn't awarded. This is serious!

Is there any way you can verify that I've played every single set since this round started? Because I swear, hand over my heart, that I have!

I do realize this is just a game, and nothing to get this torqued about, but since I am positive I've played every single set, and after having that little glitch in one of my Daily Challenges, I am now on High Glitch Alert!

Please forgive me for being a pest, but I don't know what to do, or what the heck is going on. Right now, I am on the same time as FT Time, so I know all about that midnight deadline, which is also my midnight. And my noon is FT noon.

If you will just take one more look, I won't bring this up again, but I am honestly so confused about this.

I can't tell you what you played - if the game has no record of you playing June 2 afternoon in your result list, that means the server has no data about it. Everything I can look at will tell me that there is no data.

I have taken a look at your hourly games log for June 2: You had two periods of activity. One was 5:44 to 6:32pm, the other 8:07 to 9:25. You played the Brain Twist at 8:34pm with a successful score. Could it be you went to the GC page, played the Twist and then mentally marked the GC as played? This has happened to me a few times in the past.

The bottom line is that according to server data, you have not played. We also have no reports of any other players losing games and it's perfectly unlikely that your games would get lost while no one else's would. Occam's Razor says you somehow missed playing - and I can confirm from my own experience that this is extremely easy, especially if you've not played with a full routine in a while or ever and are just trying to get into it. My suspicion would be that playing the Brain Twist (from the GC page) somehow led you to thinking you had completed the game. (Best practice: Decide on whether you want to play the BT in the am or pm set and then always play the BT LAST in your chosen time frame. That prevents this all too common error.)

You shouldn't worry much about one missed set however. You can miss way more than that and still make Immortal at your skill level.

Hmmmmm... no, I always play Brain Twist next to last in my first set, with Impossible last. I play my five Global quizzes first, and I pay attention to those quizzes, and my Brain Twist, being lined out so I know I've played.

But you're right. If this didn't happen to anyone else, and I was SO tired that day, I'm going to chalk it up to Operator Error.

Thanks, Wes, for looking into this for me a second time. It's early in the tournament, so I won't worry about it.

You definitely played the Twist in the PM period on June 2, so guess you somehow got sidetracked from your normal routine. Good luck in the challenge and see you on Immortal soon

For those being crowded out, is it possible to change the leaderboard to show the top 150 or 200? They may might like to see where they stand if they are in the running for the badge.

I'm a little confused here (although it doesn't matter for me for this challenge since I'm playing normal mode). Is the hardcore upgrade for Hardcore Winner or Hardcore Immortal? I don't see any of the Global Challenge badges on the upgradeable list yet.

I'll add the upgrade tables by the end of the week (probably Thursday). We are still hammering out the final details.

I will address this along with the layout for the new upgrades once they are made public. We have discussed things back and forth to strike a good balance between all possible issues - reward for old and new players, the value of Normal and Hardcore mode and the value of persistence versus an individual outstanding performance just to name a few.

However this is best explained once you know how things will work

A strange thing just happened to me in the Music category of G.C..

Q2 and Q3 were both the same by the same author. I went to look and they were from two different quizzes with the same question.

I do hope the correct answer was the same.

I recall having written the same question in two different quizzes, but with other red herrings and with diffferent interesting info.

If the questions and info are identical, feel free to speak to an editor in that category. This is generally not something we allow and it could be indicative of a larger issue. That said, no need to patrol for it. Interesting that it came up in GC like that though; the odds, I mean.

Yeah, LL, send me a note and I'll look into it.

It really was quite a coincidence. That author only has a very few quizzes online, and that's the only repeat question in the quizzes.

Had the Qs been further apart I would not have bothered. It was that they followed on that made them stand out. I do not go looking for anomalies, especially as I need spell-checker to even get the word right.

Awful experience at the Brain Twist today. It was a quiz by Bruyere on celebrity rhymes. The example in the intro added the apostrophe, like Jim’s whims (not an actual question). I added them too, to get all my answers marked incorrect, even though the answer was indicated as correct in the interesting info.

That's exactly why you are no longer allowed to include punctuation in Fill in the Blank questions - different keyboards have different symbols, some of which are not recognised. For example, your post uses a mark that looks to me like an accent aigu (ˊ) where the apostrophe (') goes. If that's the symbol you entered, it would not be recognised as the correct symbol.

Edited to add that's another thing the use of non-standard symbols can do - turn them into ASCII code.

It would be nice if these kind of problem quizzes can be removed from the Brain Twist selection. It's a shame to lose out on a BT for a keyboard issue if one is seriously trying for the GC.

Or in the case of this specific quiz, have the sample in the intro changed to Jims whims and the correct answers changed to take out the apostrophes. Perhaps a reminder in the intro that no punctuation is needed would also help to avoid problems in the future.

The problem with doing that is that we would be giving permission to give incorrect answers. It isn't ideal. Taking such quizzes out of the rotation would be better, though I think Terry would have to do that.

________

Spanishliz (Editor in Brain Teasers, Geography, Movies and Crosswords)

There are a number of quizzes that exist that specifically say NO PUNCTUATION or NO APOSTROPHES right now. Would those also be removed since they ask for "wrong" answers as the right ones?