Most Improved Player

[Charlie Reams]

Surely one of apterous' most improved players in recent times is, after a 6 month break from the site, Chris Maudsley. As Superstats shows, his letters maxes have risen from 42% to over 60% in the last 5 months, and at the same time his rating has shot up from 1200 to almost 1700. In the last 30 days alone, his conundrum skills have improved from 20% spots to over 50%! Chris has impressively bucked the trend caused by the introduction of 1000 new and hard conundrums, which has caused a slight reduction in the success rate of most of the top players.

Congratulations Chris, you've clearly been practising hard to earn such a rapid improvement. It's a shame that despite this rigorous practice routine, your numbers have not improved at all in the same timeframe. Maybe something to work on.

[Matt Morrison]

This is amazing! Truly a cause for celebration! And a baseball bat to each knee.

[Jimmy Gough]

This saddens me. Chris is such a friendly guy.

[Julie T]

This is amazing! Truly a cause for celebration! And a baseball bat to each knee.

Ah, but if he was immobile, all the more time to sit and play apterous!

Seriously, though, Chris, congratulations!

[Marc Meakin]

I think Damo has hijacked his username

That or Chris has overcome his 'Bad loser' reputation by improving his play with the aid of ' Analog Raven Arms '

[Jon Corby]

Hee hee.

Has Chris been contacted directly regarding the award of this prestigious title Charlie, since he doesn't tend to visit the forum often?

[Gavin Chipper]

If what is being implicitly alleged is true, then from looking a the graphs it seems quite a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. This isn't just "improving"; this is M and S "improving". (Sorry)

(Edited to take out the "c" word)

[Jon Corby]

If what is being implicitly alleged is true, then from looking a the graphs it seems quite a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. This isn't just "improving"; this is M and S "improving". (Sorry)

(Edited to take out the "c" word)

Put it back in!

[Marc Meakin]

If what is being implicitly alleged is true, then from looking a the graphs it seems quite a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. This isn't just "improving"; this is M and S "improving". (Sorry)

(Edited to take out the "c" word)

Where exactly was the C word meant to go.
Edit: Oh I thought you meant cunt

[Michael Wallace]

Why so much fuss over the c word? I mean, I know officially it's not the same thing, but I think we all know what apterous is based on...

[Derek Hazell]

Why so much fuss over the c word? I mean, I know officially it's not the same thing, but I think we all know what apterous is based on...

Some people like to play it safe because of the Scrabulous debacle.

I suppose once Marcel Stellman signs up to play, we'll all finally be able to talk about it freely.

[Charlie Reams]

If what is being implicitly alleged is true, then from looking a the graphs it seems quite a lot of work has gone into making it look realistic. This isn't just "improving"; this is M and S "improving". (Sorry)

(Edited to take out the "c" word)

The graphs weight current performance against historical performance, so you'll always see a smooth increase even if a player suddenly jumps from 0% to 100% maxes. If you don't do this the line drifts all over the place and it's very hard to see any long-term trend.

[Marc Meakin]

In all seriousness, based on stats, who are the most improved players (top 10) of 2009.

[Charlie Reams]

Just to draw out Chris's remarkable dedication and practice, I re-ran his statistics with a slightly larger weight on new results. As you can see, the line is a little less stable but the recent trend is clearer; very rapid improvement on letters, no change on numbers, and a truly incredible increase on conundrums in the last month, moving from an average around 25% to around 50%:



It appears stems really are a powerful study tool indeed.

[D Eadie]

Just to draw out Chris's remarkable dedication and practice, I re-ran his statistics with a slightly larger weight on new results. As you can see, the line is a little less stable but the recent trend is clearer; very rapid improvement on letters, no change on numbers, and a truly incredible increase on conundrums in the last month, moving from an average around 25% to around 50%:



It appears stems really are a powerful study tool indeed.

Stems are a very powerful tool, but in this case i'd be prepared to take a major gamble on the likelihood that Chris is cheating. I could be wrong of course, in which case i apologise unreservedly, but that's only because political correctness dictates that i should. The marked transformation in Chris's performance is something i don't believe can be attained by a few months of stem learning.

[Jon Corby]

I'll put it a little less kindly than Damo:

CHRIS MAUDSLEY IS A FUCKING CHEAT

[Matthew Tassier]

As a lesser player, though always reasonably good on the numbers, I started on here getting about 5 maxes per game and now after 1000 games I get around 7. As a % increase in maxes spotted I expect this compares with Chris.
If I had Superstats I imagine it would show improvements over time (and not necessarily smoothly) in my letters % maxes while my numbers performance would be much flatter. Conundrums, who knows, but by their nature (only 1 per game and max chance depending very much upon opponent) I would imagine they are subject to unpredictable fluctuations on anyone's graph.

Personally I have never studied a single stem.

I don't know Chris and i don't know if you have other reasons for coming to the conclusion that he is likely to be cheating, but I don't think that the graphs provide anything near conclusive evidence.

It may be significant that those sure of the cheating are players who have been brilliant since the dawn of aptotime and so have never been in the position where they have had the opportunity greatly improve their performance statistics.
Personally I aim to keep improving and don't see why 9 maxes per game isn't perfectly possible for me. It'll take time and practice but it won't make me a cheat if I achieve that!

[Jon Corby]

Matt, nobody suspects you of cheating simply because... you don't cheat. I hope you reach your aim of 9 maxes in a game. When you do, it will be as the result of continual improvement, and this will be fairly apparent. And nobody will accuse you of cheating. Provided of course, you haven't cheated. Okay?

[Stuart Arnot]

I am fairly certain that Chris Maudsley is not a cheat. Statistics only show half the truth. Chris has long been capable of good spots, but he has reduced the number of known words missed. Learning stems is fine, but it takes practice to be able to summon the correct knowledge within time. I have played Chris 48 times, and nothing in his play suggests to me that he is cheating.

[Jon Corby]

I am fairly certain that Chris Maudsley is not a cheat. Statistics only show half the truth. Chris has long been capable of good spots, but he has reduced the number of known words missed. Learning stems is fine, but it takes practice to be able to summon the correct knowledge within time. I have played Chris 48 times, and nothing in his play suggests to me that he is cheating.

Oh well, I've played Chris many times too, and almost always thought he cheats (even though I don't think he's ever beaten me in a regular game.)

I guess he could prove it if he felt so inclined, by playing some witnessed live games, or - as similarly-rated apterous players have done - going on the show itself. That's surely the aim after all, isn't it?

[Marc Meakin]

Maybe have a webcam feature.

[D Eadie]

I've played Chris loads of times and the improvement is highly noticeable. That said, it's wrong of me to make assumptions that someone is cheating. If someone gave me a £1000 to place on a wager, i would gamble on the probability of being something untoward, but i actually hope i'm proved wrong, and if Chris's performances are purely a result of learning then i take my hat off to him. I hope he's genuine, it's always nice to see another starlet coming along.

[Jon Corby]

As series producer, Damian has to sit on the fence slightly like that

Disallowed words are usually a bit of a giveaway too. Compare Chris's list in the last 30 days to similarly rated & active players and see what you notice...

[Charlie Reams]

As a lesser player, though always reasonably good on the numbers, I started on here getting about 5 maxes per game and now after 1000 games I get around 7. As a % increase in maxes spotted I expect this compares with Chris.
If I had Superstats I imagine it would show improvements over time (and not necessarily smoothly) in my letters % maxes while my numbers performance would be much flatter. Conundrums, who knows, but by their nature (only 1 per game and max chance depending very much upon opponent) I would imagine they are subject to unpredictable fluctuations on anyone's graph.

Personally I have never studied a single stem.

I don't know Chris and i don't know if you have other reasons for coming to the conclusion that he is likely to be cheating, but I don't think that the graphs provide anything near conclusive evidence.

Matthew, I appreciate your hesitance to jump to conclusions. FYI, here's your letters max chart:



You've improved from around 32% to around 42% over the course of a year. Here's Chris' chart:


He's improved from 42% to 60% in around 7 months. Well, that's faster than anyone else whose graph I looked at, but maybe not impossible.

Here's your conundrum chart:

So over the course of a year your max percentage has barely increased at all. This is deceptive because in that time around 2,000 new conundrums have been added, almost all of which are considerably above average difficulty. So if you've maintained the same solve rate, your actual ability has probably improved.

Here's Chris' graph:

A doubling of success in one month despite the introduction of 1000 new, very hard conundrums. Utterly incredible.

A few other points: Chris got the interesting word GARBA in a recent duel. Nothing suspicious about that, everyone knows a few unusual words. Damian asked, just out of interest, where he'd picked it up from. Chris replied that he learnt it from stemming. Stemming! Who on Earth studies 4-letter stems? Even if you did, GRAB would be a bizarre one to remember because there are hundreds or thousands of more likely and more fruitful stems. Even Sid Myers, international master of stemming, doesn't do 4s. It is, as Jon says, laughable.

Here's Chris's disallowed words in the last month - all 14 of them. By contrast Chris has 34, Kirk has 37, Dale has 56 and Innis has 166. Those are all the active players rated above Chris.

Individually none of these points would prove anything, but put them together and to my mind a pretty clear picture emerges.

It may be significant that those sure of the cheating are players who have been brilliant since the dawn of aptotime and so have never been in the position where they have had the opportunity greatly improve their performance statistics.

It's more that we've been around long enough to see many long-term cheaters, such as Frank Rodolf, and players who played legitimately for a long time before becoming frustrated and turning to cheating, such as Joseph Bolas. We know the signs. And they're all here.

[Jon Corby]

You forgot to mention as well about the all-male CLIQUE wanting to protect their dominance at the top of the game, which is why we scare women from the site, and bully anyone who looks like they're getting too good on apterous.

Haha, I've just noticed that apterous names me as Chris Maudsley's nemesis too. How perceptive.

[Michael Wallace]

Wait, Chris is a woman?

[Charlie Reams]

Wait, Chris is a woman?

He might be by the time Matt Morrison's finished with him.

[Lesley Hines]

which is why we scare women from the site

Do you??

and bully anyone who looks like they're getting too good on apterous.

Haha that's why I'm safe then. Maria Martin had better watch herself!!

[Jon Corby]

which is why we scare women from the site

Do you??

That accusation has been made!

and bully anyone who looks like they're getting too good on apterous.

Haha that's why I'm safe then. Maria Martin had better watch herself!!

There's an army of us already doing that

[Matthew Tassier]

As a lesser player, though always reasonably good on the numbers, I started on here getting about 5 maxes per game and now after 1000 games I get around 7. As a % increase in maxes spotted I expect this compares with Chris.
If I had Superstats I imagine it would show improvements over time (and not necessarily smoothly) in my letters % maxes while my numbers performance would be much flatter. Conundrums, who knows, but by their nature (only 1 per game and max chance depending very much upon opponent) I would imagine they are subject to unpredictable fluctuations on anyone's graph.

Personally I have never studied a single stem.

I don't know Chris and i don't know if you have other reasons for coming to the conclusion that he is likely to be cheating, but I don't think that the graphs provide anything near conclusive evidence.

Matthew, I appreciate your hesitance to jump to conclusions. FYI, here's your letters max chart:

...charts removed to shorten post!...

You've improved from around 32% to around 42% over the course of a year. Here's Chris' chart:

...
He's improved from 42% to 60% in around 7 months. Well, that's faster than anyone else whose graph I looked at, but maybe not impossible.

Here's your conundrum chart:
...
So over the course of a year your max percentage has barely increased at all. This is deceptive because in that time around 2,000 new conundrums have been added, almost all of which are considerably above average difficulty. So if you've maintained the same solve rate, your actual ability has probably improved.

Here's Chris' graph:
...
A doubling of success in one month despite the introduction of 1000 new, very hard conundrums. Utterly incredible.

A few other points: Chris got the interesting word GARBA in a recent duel. Nothing suspicious about that, everyone knows a few unusual words. Damian asked, just out of interest, where he'd picked it up from. Chris replied that he learnt it from stemming. Stemming! Who on Earth studies 4-letter stems? Even if you did, GRAB would be a bizarre one to remember because there are hundreds or thousands of more likely and more fruitful stems. Even Sid Myers, international master of stemming, doesn't do 4s. It is, as Jon says, laughable.

Here's Chris's disallowed words in the last month - all 14 of them. By contrast Chris has 34, Kirk has 37, Dale has 56 and Innis has 166. Those are all the active players rated above Chris.

Individually none of these points would prove anything, but put them together and to my mind a pretty clear picture emerges.

It may be significant that those sure of the cheating are players who have been brilliant since the dawn of aptotime and so have never been in the position where they have had the opportunity greatly improve their performance statistics.

It's more that we've been around long enough to see many long-term cheaters, such as Frank Rodolf, and players who played legitimately for a long time before becoming frustrated and turning to cheating, such as Joseph Bolas. We know the signs. And they're all here.

Thanks for the reply and charts! Pleased to see my (gradual) letters progress confirmed. I despair of my conundrums. Chris's conundrum chart does look odd/unlikely, although as a better player than me maybe his earlier level is as surprising as his current one. For a player who has always been better than me to average 20% conundrums at times (less than me ) seems shockingly poor.

The claim to have got GARBA through stemming certainly is bizarre ... could he have been joking??

The disallowed words are a bit misleading as he has played less games than the others. Indeed Dale averages slightly fewer disallowed words per game I think.

In summary, I remain unconvinced. However I do appreciate that you are probably in a better position than me to judge.

[Derek Hazell]

Thanks for the reply and charts! Pleased to see my (gradual) letters progress confirmed. I despair of my conundrums. Chris's conundrum chart does look odd/unlikely, although as a better player than me maybe his earlier level is as surprising as his current one. For a player who has always been better than me to average 20% conundrums at times (less than me ) seems shockingly poor.

The claim to have got GARBA through stemming certainly is bizarre ... could he have been joking??

The disallowed words are a bit misleading as he has played less games than the others. Indeed Dale averages slightly fewer disallowed words per game I think.

In summary, I remain unconvinced. However I do appreciate that you are probably in a better position than me to judge.

Someone whose default position is to see the good in people? You won't last!

[Innis Carson]

Don't know if I understand it right, but how are insane fluctuations like those on Chris's conundrums graph even possible? I'm sure I've had days where I've answered no conundrums right at all, and other people probably have too, but seemingly even that isn't enough to cause the radical dips that are all over his graph. (This isn't an accusation of cheating, don't see how that would explain it even if true)

[Charlie Reams]

Don't know if I understand it right, but how are insane fluctuations like those on Chris's conundrums graph even possible? I'm sure I've had days where I've answered no conundrums right at all, and other people probably have too, but seemingly even that isn't enough to cause the radical dips that are all over his graph. (This isn't an accusation of cheating, don't see how that would explain it even if true)

It's definitely possible to fall rapidly, e.g. Richard Brittain. Like I said somewhere above, I rendered Chris Maudsley's graph with a slightly higher weight on newer games, which makes the line more volatile but allows the line to follow a very rapid improvement more closely.

[Gavin Chipper]

This does seem a bit draggy outy. I think we're just speculating while Reams is just enjoying it and laughing at us with the extra information he has from his cheatomatic. I don't know how it works, but we're probably looking at things like at what point in the time the words are entered - if it's always the same then it points to it being the amount of time it takes to enter the letters into an anagram solver.

Or maybe Chris has beaten the cheatomatic, which is why Charlie has decided to throw it open like this to see what happens.

[Marc Meakin]

This does seem a bit draggy outy. I think we're just speculating while Reams is just enjoying it and laughing at us with the extra information he has from his cheatomatic. I don't know how it works, but we're probably looking at things like at what point in the time the words are entered - if it's always the same then it points to it being the amount of time it takes to enter the letters into an anagram solver.

Or maybe Chris has beaten the cheatomatic, which is why Charlie has decided to throw it open like this to see what happens.

I would think that he has beaten the cheatomatic or he would be banned/warned by now.

[Matt Morrison]

Wait, Chris is a woman?

He might be by the time Matt Morrison's finished with him.

Waaaaaaaaaaaait, when did I become the go-to resident aptosexpest?

[JackHurst]

I guess he could prove it if he felt so inclined, by playing some witnessed live games, or - as similarly-rated apterous players have done - going on the show itself. That's surely the aim after all, isn't it?

That doesn't work, I cheated before I went to CoLei, and still cheat all the time now, but nobody has suspected a thing.

[Kai Laddiman]

I guess he could prove it if he felt so inclined, by playing some witnessed live games, or - as similarly-rated apterous players have done - going on the show itself. That's surely the aim after all, isn't it?

That doesn't work, I cheated before I went to CoLei, and still cheat all the time now, but nobody has suspected a thing.

Note you got a max game at CoLei and you haven't got one on apterous. This means that cheating is making you worse?!

[Charlie Reams]

This does seem a bit draggy outy. I think we're just speculating while Reams is just enjoying it and laughing at us with the extra information he has from his cheatomatic. I don't know how it works, but we're probably looking at things like at what point in the time the words are entered - if it's always the same then it points to it being the amount of time it takes to enter the letters into an anagram solver.

Or maybe Chris has beaten the cheatomatic, which is why Charlie has decided to throw it open like this to see what happens.

I would think that he has beaten the cheatomatic or he would be banned/warned by now.

I really don't want to ban subscribers, it opens a whole legal can of worms that I dread. So I'd rather people were informed of the facts and made their own decisions about whether to play Chris, congratulate him on winning the Duel or whatever. And yes, I have a good deal more information which I'm not sharing, and it's not good news for our friend Mr Maudsley, but you don't have to take my word for that -- I think the publicly visible evidence speaks for itself.

[JackHurst]

...you haven't got one on apterous.

WHAT?

[Kai Laddiman]

...you haven't got one on apterous.

WHAT?

That doesn't count, you were clearly cheating.

[Ben Hunter]

It doesn't seem that unusual to learn the odd 4 letter stem, they're useful for tricky situations. I was reading a game Damian played where he got IRIS but there was a 5 letter max: SIGRI. Remembered it ever since, along with a few other strange stuff.