Hey there again, it's your one and only Jungle Boy. I figured I would start a series called "Jungle Boys Thoughts", and in this edition, I will be delving into the deranking conundrum. If you frequent the Gods Unchained subreddit as I do, you would see at least a couple of posts a week on this issue. For the uninitiated, deranking is when someone willfully throws games to go down the rank ladder. This is prevalent in God's unchained due to the weekend event format. Before we get into it, I want to state that I am looking at this from a new player's perspective and not a veteran one.
Source: Adam Whitlock, Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
If some of you haven't read the format, the full format can be found at the link below (I know for a fact most of you have it memorized),
https://blog.godsunchained.com/2021/03/19/play-to-earn-with-weekend-ranked/
That said, I want to make some key distinctions about the win to pack ratio and each rank's highest winnings and lowest winnings. Then let's compare Mythic to the rest of the ranks from 14-20 wins, and I will be breaking it down from mythic to Impact Meteorite.
Mythic - 1 Core rare pack
All other - 1 Core rare pack
When you look at the above breakdown, it seems pretty sweet for the mythic tier, correct? 115 card max in one week against 25 cards in any other rank. Well, let's break down the mythic tier from 14-20 wins. See how it stacks up with the other ranks.
If you look at the above breakdown, you are rewarded for winning in mythic till around 18 wins. Extra packs are distributed according to the first 25 games MMR for mythic players. Therefore, if there are Mythic players with a higher MMR than players with 16-17 wins, they get the lower end of the stick. You would technically be better off with 16 wins than 17 in this scenario, as you would be getting more cards (More on that in the thoughts section).
Source: NeONBRAND on Unsplash
The biggest issue is that mythic players aren't rewarded for their tier. What I am getting at is you have a chance of winning fewer cards than a meteorite player (look at the mythic 17 wins, low range). An argument can be made that all cards and packs are not equal, and I am looking at things in a vacuum. It is a valid point, yet divine order legendaries in the current market, are undervalued (I bought a DO legendary for 1.5 Gods). Therefore, getting one legendary pack and missing out on 10 other cards is not worth it, in my opinion, when trying to build a collection. Below is a link for all Divine Order legendary card prices,
As a new player, a free-to-play one at that, acquiring cards to complete my decks is my main goal. Thus, my chances of winning more cards are likely in a lower rank than mythic. The sweet spot, in my opinion, to acquire cards is Auric Gold-Midnight Shadow, and both ranks get 2 DO Epics and 3/2 Core Epics at their highest payout. The chances of you facing someone with a 1000 dollar deck is rare (I did face one and got smashed, still have PTSD from that); your bootstrapped deck should be able to net you at least 14 wins. In my first week, I achieved 14 wins with no cards purchased. This week, my second week, I got 17 wins after reinvesting my God's to somewhat complete my deck; both were in midnight shadow.
As you can see above, I rocketed my way back to Auric Gold during the weekend event. During the week, I rarely play my main deck and rather play for flux and have fun. I am a nature one-trick, and I am most likely rusted bronze with other Gods. I neither derank nor rank up as I have no incentive to do either.
The only solution I can think of is giving Mythic players free packs for being in that tier. Because allocating God's token to a tier as a reward would need restructuring in God tokenomics. It doesn't seem fair that getting 15 wins in the highest rank will net you the same as an Impact meteorite player, and thus, the incentive to rank up becomes undesirable, and deraking becomes prevalent.
If you're confident of getting more than 18 wins in the mythic tier, you should rank up as it will give you more card value (Veteran players with built meta decks should look to rank up, new players with deep pockets and the knowhow to pilot those decks should also look to rank up). If you're a new player going the free-to-play route, reinvest Gods for cards, it is more beneficial for you to stay at Auric Gold, Midnight shadow.
It also depends on how and why you play the game; it could be crafting NFTs to sell, build a collection, or rank up and test your skill. I fall into the building a collection category as I have no incentive to rank up. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether you agree/disagree and solutions to rectify the deranking conandrum. As always, it's "Jungle DIFF."
