I got 2,283,000 and haven't seen and gems so I'm assuming people got higher than that
Apparently they have logistic problems with the 1000 gems prizes. Armored vans, special permits and the like...
The trick is to scoring really high scores is chaining. If you pop bubbles every time you take a shot, you get bonus points. You can score 50,000+ bonus points per hit by the end of this level if you keep up a chain.
You need to score a hit for the most possible turns in a row, so make sure you hit the smallest amount of bubbles possible per shot (3 or 4 at best). If you take a shot and make half the bubbles on screen disappear, you'll lose plenty of good opportunities to increase your bonus. You want to keep your hits small and constant. Also, keep an eye on the next colour coming up, and make sure you have an opening for it.
There are four possible layouts for the colour "patterns" in this level. Which colour is where may vary but the patterns will be the same. As long as you haven't taken a shot, you can reset the layout without losing energy or the money you spent on power ups. I've attached screen shots of the layouts with annotations on why they're good or not.
Using this technique I can easily score around 1.5 million points, and over 2 millions if I'm lucky with colours (and score goes up exponentially at that point because it's mostly bonus points. There's probably a difference of only 4-5 good shots between 2 millions and 2.5 millions.)
Thanks so much!! I'll try that!
I have the highest for USA when will they announce the winners and will they let us know by email?