It's been a ride, Steemmonsters fam. That's how I'll always remember this game. I took a break a few months back to realize that there was a space in my life for a game like Splinterlands. So I came back, arguably at a great time because j6969 was dumping his cards well below market price and I was buying the maxed out cards for cheap.
Anytime tournaments had just been released and I was slowly getting back into the groove of Splinterlands. My first day I won something like 30/31 matches I played. Climbing from 0 again felt weird. But alas within 2 days I grinded back into champion rank. The reason why I took a break in the 1st place was they just introduced untamed and more reward cards and a slew of more abilities and rule sets. It was a lot for me to handle knowing that to stay competitive I would have to fork out more money so I let it be for a while.
Now back and playing, I loved it. I seriously felt like this was the best blockchain game in the world and I had a lot of time due to covid to play. But slowly, just like last time. The love faded. I started to realize it will never be enough, I would have to buy more cards. So I did. I bought credits and had a fun time filling up my dragons and earth decks.
Few weeks later I started seeing terrible flaws in the anytime tournaments. Why do I spend 1-4 hours submitting teams if when I lose 3-4 games, it's actually over. Something Yabapmatt said that they never wanted to get rid of bots (I feel like that's a huge mistake). Then the AMA's just didn't feel right. Like I was witnessing a sense of desperation to keep new players interested. And they always kept top players interested but what the other players in the middle like me?
Gameplay became stale. The only way to beat the overpowered cards were to make even more overpowered cards. We call that Power creep. Now I verse yodin zaku and doesnt matter how much armor I have, it destroys most of the time. Mimosa decks literally turn all my attacks to 1 damage. Not very fun.
The final piece and a stark reminder that the game always takes away rewards, rather than rewarding you further was taking away the option of using potions for reward cards but still keeping potions as rewards in themselves. And the collection score. To me, I always ask "when will it be enough" to that I say " IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH, I ONLY WANT TO HEAR JA JA DING DONG~!" sorry - tangent.
Now with Azmare dice, they kept the supply low but bumped up the prices. I get it you have to keep things interesting, but that interest in me died, came back, and died again. This time I don't know how long I'll be gone. I've rented out a majority of my maxed level earth/dragon cards. But this time, it feels real. there's a lot more negativity than positivity these days for this game. So I slowly wave my hand, wishing his wasn't the case, but know I should be doing things that give me joy. If you asked me if I could just hit the reset button and never get into Steemmonsters in the first place, I'd say no. This journey was fucking incredible. Thanks to everyone who I battled and chatted with over the years in the Splinterlands (also follow 
This isn't a goodbye - more like a see ya later.
Take care, honey bears.
Kevin