A couple of months ago I came across Jodie Whittaker's profile (13th and only female doctor) and, curious because she came from the same village as some of my ancestors I scurried off to do some work on her connections. With the help of some fellow wikitree-ers we managed to almost double her CC7, adding two further grandparents and two further connections into the global tree (previously she'd only been connected through one line).
When the Dr Who challenge popped up, I was excited to see what difference it would make and even flagged it to someone who has a one name study along one of the connection routes to watch out for updates.
So it was sad to note that her connection count didn't increase and there were no amends/additions to the profiles I manage (a reasonable number of her close intermediary profiles). It got me to thinking both of the purpose of the connection themes and of the profiles chosen to be part of the "combat" (which she wasn't).
If the purpose is pure fun, then the "top twenty themes" that I read about on a previous post last year is a good guide and popularity is probably all, but I see these games as an opportunity to continually improve the tree and it would be good to understand quality (number of "improvements") as well as quantity (number of people listing their connection numbers). Perhaps there could be more encouragement for people to make at least one improvement along the chain of all profiles featured that they have shared their connection count to?
Alongside or alternatively, would it be worth widening the thinking about which profiles go in for combat? Some popular personalities don't have high CC7 counts, so there'd be interest and perhaps a lot more improvements to the tree. Women and people of colour are under-represented within the notables section and often have lower counts, as do those from outside the english speaking world and it's a good way of evening things up a bit.
Or perhaps we could add a third "outsider" (by which I mean low connection count) profile with a special badge or badges relating to that profile. I was struck by Eowyn's comment on the Dune combat that she was tracing a new line for her, and she thought this would be interesting. There could be a new badge for the shortest verified route to that particular profile. Or award a badge to the shortest path to the notable who has had the largest increase in their CC7 during the week. I like the double agent badge as it supports inclusion of a less well connected notable.
These are just reflections and I know there's a lot of thought and effort put into the combats and, I am sure, a lot of outcomes wikitree are trying to balance.
PS, Jodie's profile linked in case anyone wants to have an extra go with the 13th doctor!
