Solitaire collection events cheating

i agree 100% that there are cheaters,  i once-once!!!-  got 5th place--- much to my surprise----i usually am a lot lower,    like 38, 48, 58,    how do we stop them?  put them on a separate game with all expert puzzles.    there  was another game that i played on my tablet that took me 5 minutes and those people 10 seconds,

i am not a cheater and never will be.   competition is fun, but not when people cheat.

    thanks for letting me give my two cents worth

So, how come WebbedNickel 124 has scored 3350 in 51:34 when the event has only been running for 9 minutes?  (See the clock in the screenshot in the system tray)

No point in trying to compete if this is so overt

I suspect they use a tool to record moves on one player and then use another tool to auto play the challenge on another player using the moves of the first player but at a very high speed.

While "peaks" isn't technically incorrect, I'm pretty sure you meant "piques."

Hey SteveSainty, I want to let you know that you are not alone in your scrutiny of the top scorers in Solitaire Tournaments.  Having just checked the "TOP 100" taba few minutes ago I am still quietly laughing to myself in response to how many people are completing the tournies in such hard to believe times.  Here's why I'm laughing to myself.  At first it kind of made me irritated because I thought well that's unfair, it's cheating. I say it's cheating because even though I possess no advanced knowledge in the game of solitaire I do have doctorate in Psychology and therefore greatly understand brain processing involved in goal-oriented, rule-based, tasks or games.  I am sure that the most advanced solitaire players officially ranked worldwide could finish the tournament in similar times obviously without cheating.  Having played such an unimaginably large number of the card games they will inevitably make use of pattern recognition drawing from games already played as well as techniques central to the game built around time efficiency , minimizing likelihood of errors and maximizing probability of accurate non dead end moves.  If someone isnot a professional player or an expert in the field they might also finish in record time if they possess savant qualities.  This typically occurs, but is not limited to, individuals who have been diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  However, savant qualities are rare in general, and they are unlimited in the kinds of specific quality the likelihood that so many young adults with such a rarely occurring ability ( remember this is to rare within the diagnosis of Autism to possess such qualities and ever more rare in individuals who do not carry such diagnosis.  All this leaves me with two possible conclusions:

1.   Many expert/professional solitaire players are participating in the tournaments. But this would only count for the adult players say age 18 years and older.  So, the players under 18 would be either really talented players who are likely already involved in clubs or tournaments for young adults but this is not necessary. Lastly, some of the young players could also possess savant qualities though we are talked very small percentage of top 100.
2. People are cheating by getting the solutions via internet cheat websites and using the solutions to solve the games very quickly.

So back to my smiling and laughing to myself.  If my first conclusion is indeed the correct one then I am in some fantastic company when I play Microsoft tournaments!   This would mean that I am competing against some of the most advanced professional and non professional players alive today.  This would be pretty cool I think.   I can assure you that if I knew this to be true I would enjoy playing even that much more as my improvements would be very meaningful considering I was reducing the gap between me and the Solitaire Greats so-to-speak.  But I doubt this is true.   

This means that the second conclusion is likely the more accurate one.  But I am still smiling and laughing to myself.   Tournament players who are using cheats are actually playing a different game than I am against a different set of players.  The top players with the shortest times might be doing some variation of the following:  Finding solutions via cheat sites and watching the solution for a game, then practicing the game on a separate device or different user account until he or she can complete it lightening fast.  maybe jotting down some notes for quick reference during the tournament.  I am sure some others are simply using a secondary device to live play solutions while they enter them into their tournament play but someone who can play by memory after practicing would easily complete the tournament in half the time I am guessing.  So, if there is at least more than one person cheating in this fashion they have successfully created their own sub game against only others who are cheating for the goal being to have the shorted solve time.   Here is the good news, I don't think people who use cheat sites even think much about the players who don't cheat. They wouldn't get any satisfaction out of their score when compared to a non cheating player because we played a different game entirely.   And the same vice versa. I must say I am impressed that those players have clearly invested a significant amount of time into their version of the tournament and at that, the top scorers have some skills and techniques worth acknowledgement. 

We'll never be able to separate the number of different sub game players (there are plausibly far more sub games than I mentioned ) and so I will end with what I do when I finish a tournament.  First of all, I am really impressed with myself each time I complete a full tournament. Sometimes I don't have the patience or enough time to set aside or enough time left on tournament clock.  I'm impressed because in the beginning of my tournament playing days I often could NOT solve the advanced puzzle. I have grown more skilled as a player and my experience playing is so much more enjoyable.  I find familiar patterns and enjoy conquering at those times while sometimes I see something I've come across before yet can't recall how to overcome the challenge.  This peaks my self driven competiveness to become a better player and be sure to digest this solution strategy so I can be victorious on the first try next time. The second thing I do is wait for the final results and when I look at my name and rank I take a minute to look at the players who finished right before and after me.  I kind of give them a mental head nod  signifying "good job" because I know they likely played for the same enjoyment and scored about the same as me and I'm feeling good myself at that moment, even it it's just a minute before it's back to the daily routine.  It's mine and no one can take it away from me.  It helps to keep my brain skills sharp and it gives me mental if not always physical space from the ever digitally connected world we live in.  

My final thought is that inherent in its name Solitaire declares that is it is game for just one player, your self.