Does Duolingo Diamond tournament always work?

[Mini]

So about a month or so back, I got this message on the leaderboard "Top 10 qualify for the Tournament", but even though I was in the top ten and no one bumped me off, nothing happened. This week I've got the same message again. I'm going to try to qualify, but first I have a question.

Has anyone else recently been a qualifier but not gotten in for some reason?

[John Little]

I accidentally got in it and worried at first about the increased pressure. But I soon realised that all it meant was that I was in a new league with only 15 people and staying in the new "diamond league demotion zone" simply meant a week off work because all you did was go back to the regular diamond league when you drop out

[uralicnomad]

I've qualified quite a few times but have never been in this tournament, maybe it's for paid members or we are part of an a/b test that doesn't qualify us for it.

[John Little]

I've qualified quite a few times but have never been in this tournament, maybe it's for paid members or we are part of an a/b test that doesn't qualify us for it.

I'm not a "paid member". I think the "tournment" is very much like a regular league but with less people. The first part of the tournament consists of a "league" with 15 people and the bottom 5 drop out at the end of the week. I don't know if the number decreases with each stage but apart from the numbers, you wouldn't notice you were in a tournament at all

[Mini]

This week it worked but I still don't know why it didn't work last time. I feel like maybe the update didn't load or something that week, perhaps.

[SweNedGuy]

I first read about the Diamond Tournament in the article "duolingo leagues & leaderboards – everything you need to know" by Matt on his 'DuoPlanet' site.

My first time in the Diamond Tournament was last week. "Top ten qualify for the semifinals", it said, while the bottom five return to the diamond league. (Nobody gets relegated to Obsidian.)
There has been the usual XP farming, but no signs of cheating with bots running scripts. I guess all 15 participants were selected among website users (less easy to score extremely high XP totals). In came in fifth (over 14000 XP below the winner and about 2000 XP above the number 11 returning to Diamond). It's gonna get tougher every week ...

[Saperlipopette!]

This past month I played the tournament, I guess to see what it was about. I had to finish top ten four weeks in a row. At the end I got a notification on my news feed (Exhibit A) and a summary screen of stats (Exhibit B) for the four weeks in the league. There are no achievements for this tournament. They also gave me a thirty minute timer when I got my notification that I won. It was a waste, as I'm not going to do lessons to join a league Sunday night.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

---

I think the bugs talked about by the OP and the first few responses were just typical Duolingo bugs -- nothing ever works right when it first comes out.

I have a free account.

[John Little]

I am now in the finals. I have no intention of competing, although I did pull out the stops to get there. So now I plan to drop back down to the Diamond league with a really low score in the hope of getting into an easy league next week.

[SweNedGuy]

Questa volta me lo cavo!

This time I'll make it!

The kind of colloquial Italian you will never find in the DuoLingo course ... Long live immersion!

[Yan534892]

In my tournament the #1 has 17000 XP..

[SweNedGuy]

In my tournament the #1 has 17000 XP..

Same here: 17000+ for N°1, 9400+ for N°2 and nearly 7000 for N°3.
There was a last hour dog fight whereby N°4 to 10 got crammed into a 180 XP interval.
Eventually I ended up N°7.

[SweNedGuy]

I'm trying to avoid getting included into the Diamond Tournament again:

Been there, done that. It"s one week of fun and two more weeks of senseless XP farming not to get sent back to the Diamond league.
I'd rather stay where I am. But I also would like to finish my friend quest ...

[SweNedGuy]

This is the second week starting a diamond tournament. Last week's league (supposedly all website users) ended as such:

Not excessively hard, but I didn't fancy getting selected on such terms. Yours truly ended 16. There were 12 users competing for the 10 places. There was an over 900 XP gap below.

With a bunch of overachievers sent to the races, this second Diamond Tournament launch seems much more laid back. With just over 1000 XP, I currently rank second. It seems difficult not to be among the leading 10 now. N°10 still stands below 700.

[Yan534892]

This is the second week starting a diamond tournament. Last week's league (supposedly all website users) ended as such:

I have no idea what the graph shows.. what's on the X-axis, what's on Y?

In my league with 4 days to go #11 is already at 3273 XP.

[Saperlipopette!]

I have no idea what the graph shows.. what's on the X-axis, what's on Y?

Y is the thirty accounts in a thirty person league ordered from 30th place on the top to first place on the bottom, X is the XP.

[SweNedGuy]

I have no idea what the graph shows.. what's on the X-axis, what's on Y?

Y is the thirty accounts in a thirty person league ordered from 30th place on the top to first place on the bottom, X is the XP.

Thanks, what 's self-evident for me, isn't so for everybody. I marked 'logarithmic graph' on top to point to the axis division. (Each major division for XP is tenfold the prior one.)

[GoLearnDuolingo]

Well I guess not... I didn't get in the Tournament though, even if I'm rank 6!

[duome]

At the very least it's inconsistent in what it shows and why: when I qualified for the tournament or the next round of it on Sunday but I didn't do any further lessons to actually start my tournament, it initially said I'm in, then it said "diamond league" again until I did my first lesson late on Monday - then it suddenly showed that I'm still in the Tournament.

[SweNedGuy]

Hereby once more a league result of the Diamond tournament entry league I was assigned to.
On Saturday night, the demotion threshold was below 1800 XP with the numbers 19 and 20 well below 1000 XP. (Yours truly was N° 5.)

Note that all participants are website users for whom scoring 2000 XP is like 6000 XP on any app.

Fast forward on Sunday at the close of the league the situation was the above. Three users roared from beneath the demotion threshold to the tournament entry selection (ranked among the first 8), farming between half and three quarters of their weekly total on Sunday.
Congrats to the first and second, who played it fair. Respect to the N°7 who scored all XP evenly over the week and took the weekend off, tumbling from first in the league to barely making it to the tournament entry selection.
The demotion threshold was lifted above 2600 during the last few minutes, while the tournament entry threshold approached 3000 XP

Yours truly ended N°10, since it had never been my intention to be sent to the races among the overachievers.

[SweNedGuy]

Continuation: with barely over 2200XP (which would have demoted me to obsidian in the above league) I got another legendary badge, ranking first in the meekest league since XP inflation kicked in. With 200 XP on Sunday, you can't blame me for unfair competition either. I survived the quarterfinal with 2500 XP landing ninth. Then came this semifinal:

Despite grinding my way throughout the week, I landed 12th. 4099 XP was well over 1000 XP below the continuation threshold to the finals.

Does the Diamond Tournament still work? Not for me anymore ...

[SweNedGuy]

Again under water in the semifinals. Three days of SUPER helped me through the quarterfinals, but the inclusion threshold for the finals was once more cranked up by a couple of thousands over the weekend. I ended 13 with 2990, spending much of the double XP on lessons rather than on legendary repeats, but with occasional stories when low on hearts. The inclusion threshold for the finals eventually stood at 4212, close to 1000 Xp below the above graph, but still not worth the effort. The semifinal was now topped at 13500.

Note that these are results for website users. The DL website is notably stingy in rewarding lessons and awarding double XP. (Any higher multiple is out of the question.)

[SweNedGuy]

The fight to enter the Diamond Tournament started on Monday. With the 'friend quests' still to start this evening, you find the league situation below:

Note that these are all website users, which typically make a few hundred XP per day, even when grinding their way through courses and farming somewhat when they get a 15 min double XP. The first user has amassed 3500 XP, which should take hours. 3500 XP usually takes you to the podium in any ordinary diamond league of website users. You may win the league is competition is not too hard. My only ambition is not to demote...

[SweNedGuy]

During a league when a Diamond Tournament will start, competition among users tends to be tougher. Not only to get classified among the top 8 leading to the tournament, but also among the others, not to get demoted to obsidian.

The below graph show the tournament entry league stats at the end of two successive weeks.

NOTE that all are website users. The DL website is stingy with XP doubles and with awarding XP for most lessons.

The week ending 28 Sep, 5077 was needed to make it to the tournament selection. User 16 just avoided demotion with 3499 XP.
The week ending 5 Oct, 3533 was needed to get selected for the tournament. User 16 avoided demotion with 2894 XP.

Whom do you want to be sent to the races with?

(If I had got selected in the first week, I wouldn't have any stats on the second selection week.)

[SweNedGuy]

Last Diamond tournament evaluation
The tournament entry runs for two consecutive weeks in the Diamond league. The first week, competition is fierce, both for a spot among top 8, but also not to be demoted to Obsidian. After taking this hurdle, the XP total not to be demoted during the first week will most often position you among the top 8 during the second tournament entry league (I ended N°7; The graph is in the previous post.)

Quarter final: I ended 8 with 3950 XP, last selected number 10 got 3299 with a wide gap below.
Semifinal: I ended 9 with 5200 XP, last selected N°10 got 5134 with a shallow gap below.
Final: I ended 8 with 5070 XP, it took 4953 to qualify. There was a wide gap below.

The legends are in my native Dutch this time. I am again learning German from Dutch after DL reintroduced a heavily amended fourth section to the course.

Note that the most difficult stage was again the semifinals. For several previous DT in a row, I did not survive the semifinals. Even now, some XP farming was needed to make it to the finals.

[SweNedGuy]

Another Diamond tournament has started. I got selected during the second entry week. Yet it looks like I won't survive the quarter finals. After barely two days, the cut-off for continuation to the semifinals already surpassed 1450 XP. Whereas 50 XP is enough for a daily quest, even 500 XP per day is insufficient for the Diamond tournament.

Update: eventually I finished 12 (though with 3450 XP) and thus reenter the Diamond league. Ever since they merged website users and app users in the same league, it has become hopeless. The cut-off to the semifinals was above 4500 XP. I'm over 1000 XP short, though grinding my way through my courses every day of the week. Quite a few super users end up high. If this is the reward for a paid subscription, it has nothing to do with language learning any longer.

[SweNedGuy]

There are still two tournament entry weeks. The first section of eight users is admitted to the tournament, while users 9-16 remain in diamond. The last four are demoted to obsidian as in any other diamond league. Diamond tournament entry leagues are always more competitive, especially during the first entry week. This implies that extra effort is needed not to be demoted to obsidian.
Usually I avoid being sent to the races during the first tournament entry week.
NOTE these data are of website users, typically gaining lower totals than app users.

• First tournament entry week: I ended N°9 with 2220 XP, continuing in diamond.

• Second tournament entry week: I ended N°2 with 2500 XP, selected to the tournament.

The second week was easier to get into the tournament: the entry threshold (N°8) was at 1703 againts 2448 during the first entry week.
That does not imply the league was meek over all: the winner actually made 500 XP more (I was second with an over 2000 XP lag to the first). The demotiion threshold to obsidian was even 100 XP higher during the second entry week. League participants 2-16 were crammed into a 1000 XP interval !

• Quarter finals: I ended 6th with 4295 XP. The winner scored over 7000 XP, the continuation threshold was at 3115 XP (doable).

• Semifinals: I ended 9th with 5000 XP. The winner scored over 10 K XP. The continuation threshold was at 4916 XP (barely below me and fairly hard.)

• Finals: I ended 5th with 7500 XP, thanks to a 'family plan' which enabled more XP farming with speaking exercises. The winner scored close to 16 K XP. The tournament winning threshold (N° 10) stood at 6568. This is very hard for a website user without at least a stretch of SUPER.

Is it worth the effort? This is only a vanity contest rather than a learning contest. Winning as N° 5 in the finals costed about 9 hours of 'learning'. Double XP stretches are counterproductive, since you are encouraged to farm XP quickly on 'autopilot', avoiding making notes and learning consciously.