BanG Dream Leaderboard Clique Collapses — Top 10 Players Banned, #11 Gets Promoted & Celebrates in Victory Speech; Eliminated Player Shows Up in Comments

Rhythm game drama has a unique flavor in Chinese gaming communities — it's refreshingly low-stakes compared to the culture wars raging in gacha circles. This BanG Dream leaderboard saga is exactly the kind of pure, no-brain-needed gossip that NGA's gossip section (瓜版) has been starving for. Two top-10 players banned, #11 getting a free promotion and issuing a victory speech, and an eliminated player showing up in the comments? Chef's kiss.

Here's the backstory: During a recent BanG Dream event, a so-called "clique" (小团体) of top players allegedly coordinated to control the leaderboard rankings, pressuring others not to push for higher scores. The original expose post (tid=39898676) laid out the evidence. But the sequel? Absolute cinema — the devs stepped in and dropped the ban hammer.

The result? Two players straight up removed from the top 10. The player stuck at #11 suddenly found themselves promoted into the big leagues. One commenter joked that the top-10 players "finally found their own Genshin Impact" (top comment, Floor 3) — in gacha slang, that means they hit the one thing they couldn't whale their way past: the anti-cheat system. Even better, the newly-promoted #11 reportedly gave a "victory speech" — a mic-drop moment if there ever was one.

Over on Baidu Tieba, the chaos was equally entertaining. Players who went to check the scene discovered the legendary #1001 "gatekeeper" — the player sitting right at the cutoff line — having a full-blown meltdown (Floor 7). One commenter captured the mood perfectly: "Between the gender wars, waifu debates, and toxicity in gacha communities lately, this is the kind of pure gossip joy we've been missing" (Floor 6). That comment resonated hard.

But the absolute peak of this saga? The player originally ranked #13 — now bumped to #11 after the bans — actually showed up in the NGA comments (Floor 16). They explained that on the final day, players ranked #12 through #16 had largely stopped grinding because the gap to the top was too wide. Nobody expected two top-10 players to get axed. The commenter joked: "T11's cushion got thrown away, now I can only stand" — a self-deprecating gag about how they got promoted without even trying. The humor is immaculate.

The rest of the comments section delivered equally spicy takes. "Will he win? He will win!" (Floor 12) — a meme quote from Jujutsu Kaisen, implying T11's rise was destiny. Another veteran shared their own experience with leaderboard cliques: "Top-ranked players once asked me to collude and split scores so we don't 'give money to the company' — the scheming was written all over their faces. I politely declined and took first place anyway" (Floor 13). Apparently clique tactics are a known problem in rhythm game competitive scenes.

One commenter nailed the core irony: the real comedy isn't the bans themselves, but how the clique's carefully orchestrated "musical chairs" strategy spectacularly backfired. A pre-ban detail worth noting (Floor 11) — before the bans hit, clique supporters were busy accusing T11 of having "moral problems" for daring to push their own score. The reversal aged like milk.

To wrap things up, Floor 17 delivered the wholesome closer, comforting the now-promoted former #13 player: "Who would blame you? Hang in there, bro — that's just how rhythm game leaderboards work. Some win, some lose." Fair enough. In the world of BanG Dream, skill is what matters. Clique politics crumbling is just a matter of time. The real lesson here? In a rhythm game, maybe just focus on hitting the notes instead of scheming.

As the OP put it: "This drama is sweet and hilarious, and there's clearly more to come." Grab your popcorn — this one's far from over.