There have been a lot of discussions lately — in Discord, in comments, in private chats, on Hive posts — about tournaments, prizing, participation, and what we should do with low-performing events.
Most of these conversations are focused on tweaking what we currently have.
A lot of these seem short term since there have been talks of a tournament overhaul anyway. Some minor ones may make sense to protect the prize pools, etc.
Given how busy the team is, it is unlikely that much will happen in the near future.
This gives us time to come together as a community and reimagine what tournaments could look like for Splinterlands.
We should first ask some big questions, such as;
- What do we want tournaments to achieve?
- What types of players do we want to cater to?
- What king of behaviours are we trying to encourage?
- What prizes and incentives can we use?
- And what kind of competitive tournament ecosystem do we actually want Splinterlands to have?
- Can we leverage ghost cards?
- What does success look like for tournaments?
I’m sure there are many other big questions we should ask about tournaments, and I would love to hear them and include them.
This post is not a proposal. It’s a conversation starter. Over here, I discuss what a broader, more community-involved proposal process could look like https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@keeegs/finding-the-flow-for-the-splinterlands-dao
A bit of my background with Tournaments
I have played several Trading card games all over the world for over 25 years and played in a massive range of tournaments from local game stores, pro tours, and fan-run showdowns.
I have also hosted regular events, run tournaments at conventions, and been a judge and head judge.
I am currently playing Flesh and Blood and recently managed to top 8 a calling (bottom right) and I will be attending the Pro Tour in Japan next April
I mentioned Flesh and Blood a bit because they are friends but also because they do a very good job. They've been refining this over years. Here is their organised play page, which is a little out of date, prizing has been upgraded and some events/formats have been replaced recently but it covers the general idea.
https://fabtcg.com/organized-play-pathway/
I’ve seen a lot of things that don’t work and a lot that work really well. Some of that will feed into the wide range of things I cover here; read through all of it to have see how the pieces fit together.
Below are my thoughts, and I’d love to hear yours.
What Are Tournaments For? (Different Levels, Different Audiences)
I think Splinterlands needs multiple types of tournaments, each designed for different kinds of players with different goals.
Different tournaments should exist for different reasons — not every event has to serve every player. That’s okay.
Casual Players
Community Weekly Events
Keep something similar to what we already have:
- Regular, accessible tournaments
- Low entry fees
- Community-first focus
These are our equivalents of:
- Friday Night Magic
- Flesh and Blood Armory events
They’re not meant to be high stakes — they’re meant to be fun, repeatable, and community building.
Competitive Players
Qualifer Pathway Events
These events are for players aiming to climb toward something bigger. This is where they start to make a name for themselves
This is where structure matters more. These are often run in series.
Think Flesh and Blood’s:
- Pro Quests
- Road to Nationals
Or poker-style satellites.
Players can earn invites to the upcoming bigger event.
These events bridge the gap between casual play and the top-level scene.
These will have higher costs than our normal tournaments, but the prizes will reflect this.
They’re also great for building up excitement for the upcoming events.
Open Big Tournaments - Callings
Higher stakes, bigger prize pools.
These are open entry, just pay the fee.
These would be our “Callings.”
Do well, → you earn a ticket to the big stage alongside a range of other bounties.
INVITE ONLY - Pro Tour
Streamed, prestigious, a showcase of our best.
This is where we find our real champions.
Three or so per year feels about right if we go on yearly cycles with sets.
Now, if we’re talking about a real competitive foundation that puts skill above wallet size, we should talk about ghost cards.
Why Ghost Cards Should Power the Competitive End
Ghost cards are our equalizer
For true competitive play:
- Everyone gets the same tools
- No wallet advantage
- No leg-ups based on old collections
- Skill > assets
If we want to spotlight real mastery, this is the way.
And honestly, Splinterfest showed what this kind of format can feel like in practice.
People still rave about it.
We have used them a few times in the past and all seem to go well
Ghost card play could make Splinterlands the strategy esport of Web3.
I know many competitive TCG players who would at least give it a go.
Prizes and Incentives
Prizes
We now have a wide range of prize options we can use. Some of these include:
- SPS
- DEC
- Packs
- Promo cards
- Exclusive titles
- Skins
- Cosmetics (avatar project and more?
- Bragging rights
Most of these rewards don’t need CP or burn value.
We can be creative here.
How can we use the prizes and incentives?
I think that all tournaments you should get something for entry, does it have to be at least the value of the entry, absolutetly not, if you do well, sure!
For me SPS should stay on that casual tournament layer where you use your own cards. This is a thank you for owning/renting assets, and in line with the white paper.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t give out other stuff. If anything, as we introduce other prizing into this, we can reduce the sps and have it last for longer.
But the competitive scene, especially ghost card events, could largely self-fund:
- Entry fees go to prize pools
- DAO contributes to the development of the assets used for prizes such as skins, titles etc
Many games use their packs as prizes; this could be a way to increase pack sales.
The DAO could fund the initial prizing packs, which it would receive half back from the initial purchase, but as we receive more DEC we can keep buying them.
This is also a way some TCG players use to build their sets, by playing.
Coverage, Content, and Attracting Competitive Players
A well-structured competitive scene generates massive content:
- Match breakdowns
- Weekly leaderboards
- Highlight reels
- Analysis shows
- Interviews
- Tournament recaps
Flesh and Blood does this really well, you can check it out here https://www.youtube.com/@fabtcg/streams
Competitive players from other games will come if ghost card play is the foundation.
They will have to buy a spell book, and they will pay entry fees for the tournaments, which fund the prizes.
Some of them might be able to take out more than they put in, but I don’t see that as extractors.
That’s talented players coming to show what can be done! Jealous? Get good?
Tournament cards
One idea I’ve been tinkering with is a set of tournament cards that can be used in ranked etc but have a special ability that only functions in tournament modes — no CP, no PP, no economy impact. Purely flavour + bragging rights + tournament utility.
Coerced Gladiator (Commons)
Rising Combatants (Rares)
The Veteran (Epics)
Crowd Champion (Legendaries)
There would be a whole matrix for how and when these cards and their different foils would be given out, but I will save that for later!
How Should We Collect Community Feedback?
This is the part I’m genuinely unsure about.
Where should this discussion live?
- Hive comments?
- A dedicated Discord “Tournaments Discussion” channel?
- DAO chat?
- A temporary brainstorm channel?
- Should someone volunteer to summarise all feedback?
- Regular “Under the Hood” sessions? (I'm looking to schedule a live one to discuss tournaments, vote on the poll for when keep an eye out on THE PEOPLES GUILD for when that’s going to happen. Feel free to leave any questions you want answered here)
There’s danger in Discord, as it can be hard to keep up, and things get lost
Hive is structured but slower.
Maybe we need both.
Either way, this needs to be collaborative.
I will try to get a post in announcements.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t a proposal.
I’m not saying this is how tournaments should go.
I'm happy to go deeper on any of these topics and provide examples
This is just:
We have time
Here’s what tournaments could be
Now, let’s talk about what we actually want as a community
I’d love to hear your ideas, disagreements, expansions, and versions of your own vision.
Let’s start the redesign together.
This was a great breakdown and much needed. Tournaments offer so much potential for both casual and competitive players and we just aren't tapping into that properly right now.
Love these ideas. It needs to be a bit different to normal gameplay, and the ghost card idea stands out to me. I would love to play an alpha-only tournament with ghost cards, as I do not have any alpha cards and only a couple of Beta cards, so I never get the chance to play with them.
Ghost cards is a fine format. Players who use the cards have more ability to practice, that is enough incentive to own/rent them. Ghost cards could allow sets to be combos the same way rulesets are. Noxious Fumes, Red or Blue, Rebellion and Untamed.
This is definitely a conversation we need to have, everything else in the game is coming together so well, the time is now to discuss the future of competitive play.
Like you I have played many TCG tournaments, even owned a gaming shop for a while where we held a number of pro tour and national qualifiers for different games, the attention they drive to games is really important.
I recently put out a post laying out my idea for a structure of tournaments (here), which is a similar, proven, way that you showed.
My thoughts on ghost cards for competitive (DAO supported) would be only, in your structure, the “callings” and “pro tour” the lower qualifier events should all be owned cards and be held at varying levels - people can use practice and challenge mode to prepare for major events and try out ideas, spent many a night with pieces of paper stuck to land in my MTG days!
The time is now to have these discussions, thanks for driving it forward
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