One of the most common things I heard from early CramClub users was: "I like the streaks and XP, but I wish there was more to compete for." Fair point. Streaks are personal. XP is personal. They motivate you, but they don't give you that feeling of competing against other people who are working just as hard as you are.
Today we're fixing that. Weekly leagues are live.
How Leagues Work
Ten tiers. Everyone starts in Bronze. The tiers climb from Bronze through Silver, Gold, Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst, Pearl, Obsidian, and finally Diamond. Each tier name exists because I spent way too long picking them.
Weekly groups. Every Monday, you're placed into a group of up to 30 students in your tier. You earn XP throughout the week by studying — same XP you'd earn anyway. The league just tracks it.
Promotion and demotion. At the end of each week, the top 10 in your group promote to the next tier. The bottom 5 get demoted to the tier below. Everyone in between stays put. This creates real stakes without being punishing — you don't need to be #1 to advance, you just need to be in the top third.
Rewards. Climbing tiers earns you Cram Crystals and bragging rights. Diamond tier is genuinely hard to reach and maintain. If you get there, you've earned it.
Why Leagues Matter
There's a concept in behavioral psychology called "social comparison." People are more motivated to perform when they can see how they compare to peers working toward the same goal. Leagues tap into this directly. You're not competing against the entire platform — you're competing against 29 other students at roughly your level.
The weekly reset is important too. If you have a bad week, it doesn't follow you forever. Every Monday is a fresh start. This prevents the discouragement that comes from falling behind on a permanent leaderboard.
I've been watching the internal data since we soft-launched leagues with a small group, and the results are striking. Students in leagues study about 40% more per week than students who aren't. That's not because leagues make them study — it's because leagues make studying feel like it counts for something beyond the next test.
Leaderboards
Alongside leagues, we've expanded the leaderboard system. You can now view daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time rankings. There's also a friends-only view so you can see where you stand among the people you actually know. Competition is more fun when it's personal.
Go check your league placement. And if you're in Bronze, don't worry — everyone starts there. The climb is the fun part.
— Peter