Just imagine literally a hand full of users who always considered themselves the cool kids and then there were the rest. If you think that's the way it is now, not exactly.
To get on the leaderboard now, you pretty much need 40,000-60,000 points minimal. It used to be just a couple hundred to get on. If you had 5-10 thousand in one week, you'd be the top user.
It wasn't until mid 2014 when the site got more interesting. Users like Entertainer28 and XenusianSoldier were dominating the leaderboard.
There weren't any "theme weeks." And it didn't seem as community based.
The mods were a little more outspoken back then.