The end of the Splinnterlands season comes with a little more excitement these days.
I have to be honest. The entire vision of the new rewards structure was eluding me until just a couple days ago. When the score came that would usually advance me to the Champion League (where the contenders would hand me my hat and send me on my way), I was instead given the option to advance.
This is new, and I like it. If I choose to stay in the Diamond I League, I will continue to face opponents of my own calibre and will have the opportunity to appear on the Diamond League Leaderboard.
It looks like Splinterlands just got a little more complicated, and season rewards just got a lot more widely distributed. For 80-90% of players who never could have hoped to reach the old Leaderboard, this addition is huge. Each and every one of you should be using this transitional time to reevaluate both your general strategy of play and your collection as a whole.
Why Would I Advance?
For the majority of the Splinterlands seasons under my belt I have reached the Champion League. I have a fairly impressive collection of Alpha Water cards, and since the early days I have greatly enhanced my collections in every other Splinter by reinvesting my rewards.
With my collection power of 1.6 million, you may think that I just belong in Champion. This couldn't be further from the truth. Many of us early adopters have built up collections that are more representative of our support for the game than our battle power. For example, I have consistently bought cards in bulk that I have felt are undervalued. I may be sitting on 5 max Daria Dragonscales, but believe me, I can only use one of them at a time in a battle.
Advancing to Champion would make me feel like some kind of elite Splinterlands player, but I also know what would happen there within my first few battles. I would lose, and I would lose hard.
For the last 2 years of playing Splinterlands I have had a single simple goal each season: To reach the Champion League. Doing so meant that I would get the best end-of-season rewards I could hope for while also ensuring my placement in the next Season. I rarely play tournaments; my Splinterlands game was all about the Daily Quest. But not any more.
Why Would I Stay Behind?
With the new system, I (as a player with a Champion-level collection) can compete at the League where I feel most comfortable. After over 16,000 Splinterlands battles, that League is Diamond. I may never be a true Champion player, and that's just fine with me.
I don't have an entirely maxed collection, so I'm often outmatched by my opponents when competing at Champion. Similarly, in Diamond, many of my opponents have lower level cards but still tear me apart.
I'm a mediocre player. Every time I get ego-inflated or have a huge win streak, I then quickly realize that there are way better players out there than myself. I shouldn't be entitled to the Champion League simply because I play every day. Let me elaborate.
I'm always in a hurry. I rarely check on my opponent's battle history and I almost never use all the time given to me to prepare a battle. I tend to reach for the same cards even though I know that there are other newer cards that might be more appropriate. I get quickly frustrated when I lose, and I usually let that frustration influence my decisions in the next battle. Like I said, I'm mediocre. I'm always the first to say it.
Is Diamond Low Enough?
As I write this the season ends in just half an hour. I doubt I have what it takes to reach the Diamond Leaderboard. I'll keep trying for the top 40 so I can win some of those Leaderboard Booster Packs, but hope is slim. If I am still short of leader rewards 2 minutes before the Season's end, I will simply advance to Champion and try harder next time.
Next season I may actually battle in the Gold League for a change of pace, but I don't expect to be able to reach the Gold Leaderboard either. I have always found that players of even greater skill tend to hang out in the Gold League. It is the highest league that allows very skilled players with low level cards to find victory.
Perhaps a bunch of us need to be reminded that we aren't actually Champions.
High Strategy and the Future
This update to the reward system is a bigger deal than many Splinterlands players realize. A lot of them are hung up on the fact that players with large collections can choose to not advance as I have described above. Others are bothered by the fact that players are now limited to max Leagues based on their collection power. If these players would simply take a look objectively and evaluate the entire system, they would see the brilliance in what @yabapmatt, @cryptomancer and the rest of the dev team have created.
From my perspective as a mediocre (but experienced) player, this addition to the reward system has upped the stakes. I now have a renewed passion for not only playing Splinterlands every day, but doing research, trying new things and always getting better. What had become something of a stale grind or chore is now a real challenge with built-in goals. If I am able to reach the Diamond Leaderboard, I must fight to maintain my position until the end of the season. But it's a great deal easier to find the motivation to play when I have actual hope of winning something.
I'm not the average player. Many would consider the level of my collection dolphin-grade investment level. But I'm here because of how much I love the game. It keeps me coming back every day because of the intense competition and high strategy. In fact, I love the game so much that I was perfectly fine playing it every single day for over 2 years with no hope whatsoever of earning Leaderboard pack rewards.
Now, since I can determine which League is most appropriate for myself and have a chance to win, I'm more likely to spend time crafting my collection, researching my opponents and just generally improving my game.
This collection power update, as much as some of the older players like to loudly gripe about it, will be remembered as the time when Splinterlands went from being the largest blockchain game on the block to being a true contender in the world of mainstream gaming. It was an update that was desperately needed to ensure the sustainability of Splinterlands, and I'm thrilled for it.
Thanks to the individual League Leaderboard update, countless players who previously had no chance at Season rewards are now raking them in. This gives them not only a sense of victory and accomplishment, but an incentive to spend more money on what they now know is an incredibly rewarding game (and not just for the players at the tippy top).
I hope you all find the rewards and growth that you're looking for, as well as all the Gold Foil Legendaries you require!
See you out there!
-Chris
Subscribe to the GOLD FOIL PRESS
Splinterlands on Twitter
Splinterlore on Twitter
Splinterlands on Publish0x
Spliterlands Discord Community
Splinterlands Telegram Community
So cool that the first season with the new league leaderboards is over now and people see first hand how much difference they already make. I wish everyone good openings (or sales).
I'm in somewhat the same situation myself. I have a high quality deck but I'm not the best player, so I think it's great having the option to advance or not. Now I can choose to compete in the leaderboard that's best for my skill & playstyle. I stayed in Diamond last season; this season I'll try out Gold and see what the difference is. It's fun experimenting and discovering what leaderboard I feel most comfortable in!
People need to remember that collection power is basically a key that unlocks the door to higher leagues; it's not meant to be indicative of where a player should actually be. Just because I have the key doesn't mean I need to go through the door.
Congratulations @chrisroberts! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @hivebuzz: