Solitaire collection events cheating

I don't see any point in buying a BOT like that either.  Maybe people are challenging each other regarding who can run the BOT the fastest, but that is not playing Solitaire.  

Two thoughts regarding your going from 8 to 34.  Depending on when you finish, in a 4000 point game you will be placed based on those who have already completed all the challenges.  So if there are 15 people who have 4000, they will be the top 15 finishers.  As other people get to 4000 points, the placement of those first 15 will change.  The person in first out of the 15 might not be once 50 or 60 have reached 4000.  I never assume my ranking until the next day.  Some players play some of the challenges and then stop until later when they come back and finish.  In my case, it is because I need to eat dinner or go to an appointment.  I think others do it as a strategy.  They want to see the time of the best finishers and challenge themselves to beat that.  I don't see anything wrong with that, but it means you won't know your true placement until the next day.

The other comment is that with a time of 1 hour 48 minutes, you probably won't end up at 8 unless it is a very complex set of challenges.  In the challenge yesterday, I was first with a time of about 29:57.  Even at that time I was more than 5 minutes out of the top 100.  It was a Freecell challenge which for me is the easiest because you see all the cards and their locations before you start.  I could never achieve that time if it was a Spider challenge since you only see 10 cards at a time.   One of the ways I make Freecell easier is before I make any move, I look at the whole deck and see where the Aces and low cards are, as well as find any easy moves that would uncover Aces.  I don't think the clock starts until your first move so I develop my strategy before I even start playing.

Keep playing and you will find strategies that work for you.  And you will see your best times go down as you intuition improves about which cards to play next.

I am a Paid Member with full access to the entire solitaire collection and the entire word collection.  Some where out there is someone who is selling a BOT that plays the games for you for these challenges.  To me that is like looking at the back of the crossword book for the answers instead of doing the puzzle, researching clues given, etc.  Why pay for the book at all?  They are only cheating themselves.    The other thing is that when we play we are placed into a group of 100 that finished at about the same time, but each getting there through different times.  I finished mine in 1 hour 48 minutes and was automatically shown as 8th in the line up, in the morning I had been moved to position 34 and the badges that were showing for me had changed of course.  SMH....  It is almost as bad as military math towards what percentage a person is disabled.

It is getting idiotic. Yesterday I finished the event and was positioned near the top. Today I get the final results and I am not even on the leader board. I do not think that Microsoft will do anything about the situation, unless they make it a pay for game, and can see that they might make a few more dollars.

You're right.  Perhaps it is possible to finish 30 hard puzzles in 28 minutes or less and maybe with more practice I too will get those elusive badges one day. Thank you.

I am missing only 3 of the badges: 1,2,3.    It seems those who receive that badge are using some form of game bot to play the game for them in unrealistic times.  Microsoft has the knowledge to see if someone is using a BOT or playing on their own.  Perhaps Microsoft should have two levels of play   1. Honest Players  2. Bot Players.    On average my games are 2 minutes with 30 games that is a minimum of an hour.  But I also have a life that medically requires me to get up from the computer and that time away is added into the game play time.    It asks me at the end of my answers / responses each time if the other persons  information "solved my problem" and they give me five stars.  I have to say Terry, ten stars for stepping up however, for the Microsoft forum bot / monitor I had to give 1 star because you and I both still have the same problem.  Being ignored.   

I'm also in my 50's and I play the tournaments to challenge myself. I've played just over 300 games and landed 1st and 2nd over 100 times (in my group). Honestly, I would have no idea how to cheat - and no inclination to do it. There's no challenge in cheating. 

I do suspect that some of the top rankers have cheated, but having improved since the first few games, and having 1st place through sheer luck (getting the right combo of plays the first time), it's possible that some of the top 100's have actually earned their places. I hope they have. But if they haven't, well, they know and I can't imagine that landing in 1st place has quite the same feeling as when those of us who play honestly see that golden number one. 

as a side note: time is not added to your game when you take a break. I take them every 15 minutes or so. Just back out of the game, and start again. The advertisements don't add to the game play, neither does the loading time. It's just the time you keep the screen open on an active game that the timer is on.