Live from the Leaderboard, Dispatch #3: Down to the Wire 🏁

Live from the Leaderboard, Dispatch #3: Down to the Wire 🏁

Mike Capraro, better known as super catcher caprarom, is back in the press box for the final week of our Global Catchathon. In his last report, starider and Hasret were so far ahead that their dust had time to settle. This time, Mike watches a tight race for seventh place and counts what may be 200 or more catchers from Microsoft.

He also takes us under the hood of his unofficial skill metric, with a hypothetical that certainly did not happen on October 18. The Catchathon wraps on October 30, so there’s still time to make your move. Take it away, Mike!

Report from Mike

As I write this, the catchers in our individual top ten Challenge ranking seem to have themselves pretty well sorted out, but not all. Aside from the battle for the top two spots, this correspondent recommends keeping a close eye on ababbie and ALZ_BOT_X who’ve provided some exciting action as they contend for that seventh position. Also, the mercurial lscatcher seems to be making a stealthy move on fifth. If that gets you to the edge of your seats, good! It’s a healthier posture for working on the computer.

Meanwhile, another Microsoft team made it onto the Leaderboards since the last dispatch; 2026 Microsoft Team OCE with 18 members contributing now joins the MS Give LLE Team with their 21 members in the top ranks.

I’ve kept an eye out for additional teams likely participating in the Challenge that, while not currently on the Leaderboards, have made the daily top-ten listings. Apologies to teams I’ve missed, I don’t live in front of this ‘puter, but here are some additional teams noted thus far:

• WECE, I don’t know the acronym, but there may be a “hiking” and probably a Microsoft connection.
• WSSI Stall Catchers, another Microsoft team. Go Engineers! (From a biased ChE)
• Microsoft EMEA MCAPS Finance, with 55 team members! Some team names just roll so gently off the tongue, don’t they?
• Microsoft Deal Desk, with 21 members and an interesting owl logo - they must make wise deals.
• DCU 2026, another Microsoft Giving League team.
• WSD, yet another MS team.
• Brandon’s Catch for a Cause, cute brainy logo, also in the Microsoft Giving League.

A certain anonymous player named Kris apparently played one day and got yet another MS team into the daily top ten, but then left the team. She likely noticed the team name started with “2025 Give .... “. Presumably she switched to a suitably named 2026 team. Don’t worry, Kris, no one will ever know! (Oh, I see where you went ... Well done! ... But they probably noticed.)

On the same day another player with a more unique username accomplished the same feat for a 2024 MS team, EMEA MCAPS Finance. Likely he or she left to find another current team. I can understand the possible confusion; Microsoft really does have a lot of teams!! It’s probably safe to assume we’ve at least 200 catchers from Microsoft participating in this Challenge!

OK, on to the personally contrived Skill Metric (catcher’s Score divided by catcher’s Research Annotations): As I write this (about 5PM UTC 10/25), Norstan is still looking very solid with a score of 1285. He might be sweating just a bit, due to a late charge by the player from team “Stardust@Home”, who has worked his way up to 1262, and intends to advance further, but it’s probably too little too late after his abysmal start. (Sigh! Just wait ‘til next challenge, Norstan!) Hasret at a fine 1248 is also not out of the picture. Other scores from the top-10 individuals range from 869 to 1177.

I said last time that I might expound a bit on the accuracy (validity?) of this skill metric. If interested, keep reading. If not, then get back to work and score some points! (Which is more than I’m doing right now.)

This is somewhat esoteric. This “Skill” metric is no substitute for the vertical blue bar to the right of our movie viewing area for at least two reasons:

1. During the Challenge, it will be a lower value than you would get during normal play because redemption points are not included.
2. It is subject to a bit of ‘tweaking’ (chicanery/skullduggery?) or dumb luck, and for lack of a better term, there is a bit of hysteresis in the metric. More than one veteran catcher has noted and commented on this over the years. That is due to an algorithm that adjusts the ratio of real to calibration movies. As you first begin Stall Catchers, you see calibration movies at higher frequency to provide you more practice and (if you keep the “Show answer” box checked) feedback. As your skill improves, the algorithm will reduce that frequency. So, for illustration, here’s an entirely hypothetical example that could have taken place on October 18th but certainly did not.
   • caprarom at say 1241.8 on the skill metric is vying to catch Hasret who is at 1241.9 (probably unaware that it’s even a competition).
   • caprarom is frustrated. He has not missed a calibration in ages (OK, hours). His blue bar is maxed out, but not only does he make no progress catching Hasret, his score actually wanes a smidge to 1241.6.
   • This realization causes caprarom to lose focus and he misses a calibration movie! (He might then have missed another because of the shock, but this is still hypothetical.)
   • caprarom buckles down until his blue bar is again at max.
   • caprarom checks for damage, but his skill metric has actually increased to 1242.4! He smiles and thinks to himself, “Way to go, algorithm!”

Because caprarom flubbed one (or two) calibrations, he temporarily was given a higher frequency of calibration movies (big points) which more than offset the penalty of his diminished blue bar. So, it’s not a perfect metric, but still pretty good.

For something less esoteric, I’m not sure you all know about the HCI Forum. Even if you do, I’m willing to bet you don’t all know about the badges available there. If there’s an interest, I might be persuaded to share more about the Forum.

OK. If you’ve been holding back, now is the time to pull out the stops and surge to the finish. Enjoy this last week of the “Stall Catchers Turns 10: Global Catchathon!”

caprarom

The final stretch

The Catchathon runs through October 30, so every vessel you catch this week still counts.

• The top 10 catchers win a Stall Catchers 10-year t-shirt, announced at our celebration on October 30.
• It’s not too late to join or make a team. Mike is watching the daily top-ten team listings, so your team could be in his next report.
• Pizza parties are still on. Host five or more people and we’ll reimburse up to $50 of pizza. Email caroline@hcinst.org at least 24 hours ahead, then send us a group photo and add your meetup to SciStarter. Full rules are on the pizza party form.

New here? Start catching at stallcatchers.com.

Follow along

Missed the earlier dispatches? Catch up on dispatch #1 and dispatch #2. For the latest from the final week, find us on Instagram, the Stall Catchers Facebook group, the HCI Facebook page, and YouTube. You can also swap tips with fellow catchers on the forum.

See you on the leaderboard! 💜

P.S. Kris, your secret is safe with us. Mostly.