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Redefining percentile or who is considered an active participant as the author did is the greater self-serving misunderstanding. Following from my earlier comment here, this weekly graph already shows active players - those who aren't active aren't factored in: https://lichess.org/stat/rating/distribution/blitz

To be active on Lichess requires on to actually be active and have a Rating Deviation below a certain value.

It's all easy to "reaching the top 1% is easy" if you're already at the top. I commented earlier explaining the difference between Overwatch and chess, pointing out how the author's description of what it took to get "good" at Overwatch simply doesn't work for chess. Without trying to slight Overwatch, chess is simply a very very tough game/sport to get very good at.

As Grandmaster Ben Finegold would say, "I'm the best player in this chair!" Yep, so that also makes me in the 100th percentile when in my own chair, just with fancier words.