| |
BGonline.org Forums
GNU + Crack = ?
Posted By: Coolrey In Response To: GNU + Crack = ? (Stick)
Date: Sunday, 10 May 2009, at 1:11 a.m.
Gnu + Crack = MCG
I didn't look at this example... but I bet I know what it looks like. Hugh Sconyers made the bot look silly a couple years ago over at GG.
GGRaccoon was the 2 ply instant play Gnu, and everyone at GG SWORE it cheated. It had ratings well over 1900 most of the time, and well into the 2000s some of the time. Once in a great while it would dip into the 1800s. People hate losing and they need an excuse so they just almost universally blamed GGRaccoon for being a dice mechanic. Yet they played it over and over, delighting in telling their own personal horror stories of "Bad Bot Beats".
Why in the world subscribers at Games Grid firmly believed that the creator Ken Arnold would employ a bot to destroy his paying customers is a mystery that can only be explained by the intricacies of the human psyche! Absolutely nutso, imho.
Along comes Hugh. Very unassuming guy. GENIUS, pure genius. Don't mess with Hugh. Top 10 talent in the world if he had the initiative. Trust me. Remarkably humble, (as Stick can tell you because he offered Stick odds on their hedge in Vegas). Stick got a very good deal there!
Anyway, Hugh notices something... like the 14 point affinity in back games perhaps? Anyway he decides that he can beat GGRaccoon the infamous "cheater".
He starts inviting it to 1 point Nackgammon matches. He steers towards MASSIVE backgames.
At that time, the highest rating ever achieved in the history of GG, was probably Paul Weaver @ about 2200. Paul used to play Nackgammon exclusively. He also used to play 2 point matches when 2 point matches were worth more than 1 point matches, and rumor had it that he sought out sub 1300 rated women as his opponents. The least aggressive opponent possible. That way, only he was using the cube and he was able to win from 80-90% of his matches and run his rating that high. Then they changed the rules and he dropped about 200 points but still was able to maintain a rating around 2000 playing nackgammon only.
Walter Trice still does this, by the way, and he is the highest rated player on GG, playing in the nackblitz exclusively. Paul got voted a GIANT several times over because people around the world saw his name at the top of GG for years, for one thing. He is also a good backgammon player, of course.
Neil K. always hated that people could artificially inflate their rating in this fashion at GG so he only played there a limited amount. Meanwhile Paul would bash others, like Hank Youngerman for instance... Acusing them of inflating their rating artificially, of all things! He gathered his intelligence while freeloading a spot on Hank's couch, mostly... and before he outed him, he had Hank reformat his hard drive and reinstall Snowie for him. Then he went to Japan and published the letter publicly criticizing Hank. But enough about the esteemed Mr. Weaver!
Hugh ran his rating up to 2400, a number previously unheard of, and to date STILL unheard of...
Until the GG staff locked GGRaccoon up and would not let it play Nackgammon anymore. I watched Hugh play it and invariably when the back game got huge enough it would pick out like 3 points on the board to stack its checkers on...
Like it's 4 point, the 14 point, and having 3 men back waiting for a set to win the game! I tried playing it too, to be honest with you, but I could not beat it even though it hadn't a clue... I did not possess the ability to fully take advantage of it. Hugh did.
Hugh Sconyers is a legend in my opinion. He took on THE consensus cheater/mechanic/programmed to beat you bot... and soared higher than any other player ever soared. Even those that picked on the helpless.
| |
BGonline.org Forums is maintained by Stick with WebBBS 5.12.