Talent seems pleased with this new scoring format, and he should be. The game is now geared strictly for the top 15 to 20 players on this site. For the hundreds & hundreds of others, it's HORRIBLE !! Notice now that all the elite, top-rated players are adjusting their settings for long games - 6 or 8 ends. Why? Because the odds of anyone else beating them in a 6 or 8 end game is 1 in a 1,000. Therefore, they are going to win virtually EVERY GAME they play. Their ratings keep going up...everyone else's keeps going down. Regardless of what a few people have stated in these forums, 90 % of the players have been coming here to live off the 'rush' of moving their rating points upward. Now, as the site will see, very shortly, not as many people are coming here and, those who do, are not playing as much. Bad news for the sponsors (ads). It's become virtually impossible now for the average player to move up , in terms of ratings points. You play someone with a rating 40 points higher than you & lose 4-3, you LOSE points. You play someone with a rating 40 points lower than you & lose 4-3, you LOSE even more points. Over the past few days, I've tried EVERY POSSIBLE combination of opponents & number of ends - all with the same result - LOST POINTS (win or lose). Meanwhile, I notice that the top 15 highest ranked players just keep accumulating more & more ratings points. The game that was so much fun, for the past two years, has suddenly lost it's luster. You'll notice that people are 'taking up space' in the lobby, with their silly 'alarm clocks' set, & seldom play. They have to wait forever to find just the right opponent so that their ratings points will not be destroyed by choosing the 'wrong opponent.' I'll play anyone, but usually the only people who don't have their 'alarm clocks' set are those with lower ratings. If I beat them,I usually lose points, because the margin of victory isn't big enough. If I lose, the ratings points really take a beating. I'm down about 80 points, in just a few days, since this new system was launched. At this rate I should be back to BEGINNER or NOVICE status within a week or two!