I've been going for this for a week or two now, highest I reached before I got knocked down was a little under 2500 (can't remember how much as I was drunk >_< which maybe why I'm now working back to Crystal 1 :P)
I knew it would be hard but I didn't realise it was so hard only a couple of people had done it >_<. I made it into Crystal with TH6 without too much hassle but the amount of townhalls that are snipe-able in Crystal 1 is tiny and drove me broke searching for opponents >_<. I was kinda hoping that was bad luck/timing or something but sounds like it might be best to give up on that 1000 gem bonus anytime soon :P (I've been doing this without microtransactions except my first 'i would have payed for this game' transaction that got me to 4 builders)
Well will see what happens when I reach Crystal 1 again in the next day or so :P, getting 3 starred anytime I log off for more than 5 minutes (or 30 seconds sometimes :P) doesn't help >_<






