I'm a member and I don't know crap about it. I can only guess who the top three are, based on who I'm getting communications from. I'd say, but I don't know if I'm allowed.
Other than that, everything is a mystery. Take this:
Robinette wrote:Players are added and removed by a secret process.
I would explain it here and now, except that it is.... well, secret.
I only hope that, if I'm removed, someone will tell me what I did and how I get back in!
Basically, as far as I can work it out, there are a group of three who have a history of making statements, on his forum especially, to the effect that they want to raise the level of their game ever higher. Their interest in points is secondary to their quest to play only the best in order to be the best, points being mere evidence of their superiority (and good evidence too... they are damn good.)
As far as I can tell, the people they've pulled together are people who don't "make mistakes." I wrote several sentences trying to explain what that means exactly, but it's harder than I thought. It means that you know your maps, you know your styles, and you can look at the maps and know what's going on everywhere on it. It means that if you lose, you at least have a theory why and an idea that you won't do it again. And then you don't, and your points are evidence of that.
Alliance-makers appear to be out... and Pedro has said something to the effect that newb-fishing doubles/triples players are also out. And of course there is at the moment a friend-of-a-friend kind of aspect to it, but it's early days.
I was at first concerned that this super-elite thing was another attempt to hold points within rank, but now (and again, there hasn't been any kind of manifesto sent out at any time, so I'm guessing) what it LOOKS like is an attempt to get serious about the game beyond what's been done so far. Playing public games is fun, it seems to say, but let's stop playing and get scary. It's not a clan, because a clan implies that we're all friends and we all care about each other and we get each other's backs. They're specifically not saying that. They're saying that they care how well you play and that's IT. It's a conspiracy for excellence.
Don't look at me... I'm scared too. Do you see the people in these games? I gotta step it up.