Leader board needs 5 finish games to be qualified

server.js

@@ -103,10 +103,20 @@ function findUser(username) {
   return null;
 }
 
+const EMPTY_STATS = { games_played: 0, games_won: 0, shelemCount: 0, bids_won: 0, total_score: 0 };
+
+// Read-only lookup. Never creates or persists a row — the leaderboard walks
+// every known user, and creating-on-read there meant one full stats.json write
+// per user on every page load, plus a file steadily filling with empty rows.
+function readStats(userId) {
+  return stats.find(s => s.userId === userId) || { userId, ...EMPTY_STATS };
+}
+
+// Write path: materialises the row so addStats has something to accumulate into.
 function getStats(userId) {
   let s = stats.find(s => s.userId === userId);
   if (!s) {
-    s = { userId, games_played: 0, games_won: 0, shelemCount: 0, bids_won: 0, total_score: 0 };
+    s = { userId, ...EMPTY_STATS };
     stats.push(s);
     saveStats();
   }
@@ -146,7 +156,11 @@ app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public'), {
 const APP_VERSION = require('./package.json').version;
 
 app.get('/api/config', (_req, res) => {
-  res.json({ signupsOpen: config.signupsOpen, version: APP_VERSION });
+  res.json({
+    signupsOpen:    config.signupsOpen,
+    version:        APP_VERSION,
+    minRankedGames: MIN_RANKED_GAMES,
+  });
 });
 
 // Validate the stored auth token; the client uses this at startup to detect a
@@ -207,7 +221,7 @@ app.get('/api/profile/:username', (req, res) => {
   const user = findUser(req.params.username);
   if (!user) return res.status(404).json({ error: 'User not found' });
   const effectiveId = user._fromShared ? `hokm_${user.id}` : user.id;
-  const s = getStats(effectiveId);
+  const s = readStats(effectiveId);
   res.json({
     username:     user.username,
     games_played: s.games_played || 0,
@@ -246,6 +260,9 @@ app.get('/api/history/:username', (req, res) => {
   res.json(games);
 });
 
+// Finished games a player needs before they appear in the ranking proper.
+const MIN_RANKED_GAMES = 5;
+
 app.get('/api/leaderboard', (_req, res) => {
   const allUsers = [...users];
   if (SHARED_USERS_FILE) {
@@ -259,7 +276,7 @@ app.get('/api/leaderboard', (_req, res) => {
   }
   const rows = allUsers.map(u => {
     const eid    = u._fromShared ? `hokm_${u.id}` : u.id;
-    const s      = getStats(eid);
+    const s      = readStats(eid);
     const played = s.games_played || 0;
     const won    = s.games_won || 0;
     return {
@@ -274,14 +291,28 @@ app.get('/api/leaderboard', (_req, res) => {
       avg_score:      played > 0 ? +((s.total_score || 0) / played).toFixed(1) : null,
     };
   })
-  .filter(r => r.games_played > 0)
-  .sort((a, b) =>
+  .filter(r => r.games_played > 0);
+
+  const byWinRate = (a, b) =>
     (b.win_rate  - a.win_rate)  ||   // primary: win rate
-    (b.avg_score - a.avg_score) ||   // tie-break: average score
-    (b.games_played - a.games_played)
-  )
-  .slice(0, 30);
-  res.json(rows);
+    (b.avg_score - a.avg_score) ||   // tie-break: average score (higher is better)
+    (b.games_played - a.games_played);
+
+  // A single lucky game shouldn't top the board, so a player needs
+  // MIN_RANKED_GAMES finished games before they get a rank. Everyone below that
+  // is still listed, unranked, so a new player can see their progress.
+  const ranked = rows.filter(r => r.games_played >= MIN_RANKED_GAMES)
+                     .sort(byWinRate)
+                     .slice(0, 30)
+                     .map(r => ({ ...r, ranked: true, gamesToRank: 0 }));
+
+  const provisional = rows.filter(r => r.games_played < MIN_RANKED_GAMES)
+                          .sort((a, b) => b.games_played - a.games_played || byWinRate(a, b))
+                          .slice(0, 10)
+                          .map(r => ({ ...r, ranked: false,
+                                       gamesToRank: MIN_RANKED_GAMES - r.games_played }));
+
+  res.json([...ranked, ...provisional]);
 });
 
 app.get('/api/rooms', (_req, res) => {