Why Collection Power is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for Splinterlands

I'm relatively new to Splinterlands. I just joined last fall -- so I'm not one of those old-timers.

When I joined, there was this thing know as the "diamond wall". Basically, unless most of your cards were maxed, you weren't going to reach the Diamond III league because the competition was too tough.

Now, fast forward to today. It's the second day of the season, so I'm chugging through Champion III. And what do I run across? Someone with all level 1 cards. WTF?



Seriously? How is this guy playing at this level? Worse, I looked at his stats.



This turkey made it to Champion I. Now, notice his power. Don't know what 202K means? Well, check out his collection on Peakmonsters. Or, here's a quick summary. . .



So why is this a problem? First, in order to get to Champion I, he must be competitive with other players of the same rank. This means that there are A LOT of accounts that are this bad spread through Champion.

So why is this a problem? Season rewards for Champion I is 150 loot chests which averages to about $15. Daily rewards have dropped dramatically (due to people like this in leagues where they shouldn't be able to compete) - but you still can earn $0.60/day or about $9/season.

So, this guy (who is almost assuredly a bot), has spent $24.35 and is raking off the same ~$24 every season. Realistically, this says that anyone (including me) who isn't grabbing bot code and making 100% profit every fifteen days is pretty much an idiot. And hundreds of bots (if not more) are doing exactly that.

Now, personally, I have nothing against bots. I have to play against very good bots with nearly complete collections of maxed cards -- and I have absolutely no problem with that. In fact, I believe, along with many others, that having such bots is a good thing since it provides players when no human players are available.

The problem is that there are so many bad bots with minimal collections that they have flooded the game. Instead of a diamond wall, bots with only first level cards are making it to the top level of Champion I. And the same is true of human players as well.

Which brings us around to the complaints of "This isn't fair because the collection power is limiting me because I'm not allowed to achieve above a certain league". What they don't realize is that they are incorrect. The collection power is limiting them -- but solely by preventing the bots from enabling them. Those players haven't "earned" their leagues -- they've just been able to play the flood of bots which have swamped the game.

The so-called diamond wall -- as frustrating as it was -- was really good for the game. People earned the rewards that they got. Now we've got both bots and human players sucking money out of the game that they don't deserve. How long does anyone believe that any game or business can survive if people can make a minimal investment and then suck that much out every fifteen days? Even loan sharks don't make that much.



People who hang out in Discord know that I am a staunch advocate for newbies and lower-level players. I do feel that the game is stacked against them and a bit too much "pay-to-play". But collection power is an issue where the Splinterlands team (who I frequently, vehemently disagree with) got it absolutely right. I'm sure that there will be adjustments and some mitigation of some of the effects -- but this action was absolutely necessary to prevent Splinterlands from being pillaged into oblivion.

If you disagree, please comment below -- but also explain how you believe that Splinterlands (or anything else) can possible survive having 100% profit being sucked out every 15 days. Hopefully, though, everyone reading this -- including those most heavily impacted -- will now see the reason why the team ***had*** to take action in this way.

Note, also, if you can come up with some other, better solution --- please, please, PLEASE share it. If there were another way to solve the problem, there are plenty of people willing to listen and fight for it -- because we want this game to not only survive but thrive and grow (and we need newbies and lower-level players for that to happen).