Candy Crush mom ends up in the semi-finals of a $250K tournament she didn't even know she'd entered

pcgamer.com:

Usually, when I enter things by accident, it's the men's bathroom or a Parisian protest over France's retirement age (don't ask). In Erryn Rhoden's case, it's a Candy Crush tournament that placed her as one of the best players in the entire US of A and gave her a shot of winning her share of a $250,000 prize pool.

The 48-year-old mother of three told Kotaku(opens in new tab) that she's been playing Candy Crush for around a decade, after quitting a life of «demolishing» opponents in competitive PvP games. She said she settled on the colourful match-three game as a way to «fill [her] mind and keep [her] focused,» adding it «satisfied [her] urge to win without feeling like [she was] doing anything to anybody else and causing rage.»

But how do you accidentally enter a whole-ass esports tournament, I hear you ask? Rhoden said that the Candy Crush All Stars(opens in new tab) tournament was actually sort of vague and «cryptic,» causing her to not realise that she'd entered. It's an in-game event, with players qualifying through each round by reaching the top spots on their leaderboard. The finals are set to take place live next month in London, but every other part of the tournament takes place through the app. 

There's no direct player-versus-player competing that you might see in other esports tournaments. «They don't let you know where you rank, or what region you're playing in until the end,» Rhoden told Kotaku. She continued that she usually ignores the game's various pop-ups as a free-to-play player. «I'm clicking [on the exit buttons] and not paying attention. And then I apparently clicked yes instead of no. A week later, it was like: 'You qualify.' And I'm like, 'Well that's nice.' I didn't even know I was playing.»

So