Hello there.
Welcome to my Tournaments post. I usually make this when I win a specific tournament for the first time, or if I do well in a big tournament. For this post, I will be going through my journey on the 3rd LLAC tournament.
If you've seen my other posts, or if you join novice tournaments as well, you will see my name often, or we might have faced each other. I try to join all the novice tournaments, and I think I perform relatively well in them. That was why I was surprised when I saw this LLAC tournament.
It was a Novice Wild tournament, with the only restriction being that Legendary Summoners are not allowed. Since I usually join Novice tournaments I was excited to try this out. The Splinterlands novice tournaments are usually just the Chaos Legion [CL, RW, Rewards] set, with no legendary summoner and monsters allowed. While I have experience there, including all sets and legendary monsters is a different thing altogether.
The tournament runs for 24hrs with multiple rounds, similar to the SPL tournaments. It only costs 1DEC to enter, but requires identity verification. Based from the tournament name, this is supposedly the third iteration of it. I don't remember the other two, but I think I didn't join them because of the identity verification. Since I verified my account for the SPL Ladder of Trials
[ghost card tournament] before, I can now join this tournament as well.
Leading up to the start of the tournament I was monitoring the number of participants. There were two big reasons on why I wanted to join it. First, is to see how I stack up against others in a Wild Novice tournament. Will my experience be enough, or will my lack of cards be my downfall. The second, is the rewards. When I joined early, there were less than 200 participants. Even if I performed poorly, I will still be 221DEC in profit. There was nothing to lose and everything to gain.
When the tournament began we ended up with 222 participants. I don't know if it was a coincidence, or if some LLAC affiliates decided to drop out to get that number, but it was crazy once I realized it. If you look at the tournament description, the first place reward, as well as the minimum payout above the 1DEC, there are the 22222, 22222, and 222 numbers respectively. They really love their twos, and getting 222 participants is really nice for the theme.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_Ha4f8GNMue1bzwpLVPF0&ref=outwars
As I was going to start entering my teams, I wasn't too confident. Some battles have already started, and a lot of the top players in the rankings were champion players. I also saw some big names like Truls, who a lot of SPLTV streamers consider one of the best, and Jacekw who also wins a lot of tournaments. It was also nice to see some familiar names like Arniboi who is also a SPLTV viewer.
Because of my experience with the SPL Ladder of Trials, I was initially concerned about choice paralysis. But as soon as the interface for the cards to be chosen appeared, all that disappeared, since I just saw my regular old cards. I only own a few cards outside of the CL set, and this felt like my regular ranked battles. My cards didn't have extra abilities, in fact some of them even lost some ability or stats.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_1U3CVemaSxDWBxmH7nuk&ref=outwars
I thought I was in my comfort zone and was starting to feel confident, when I was blindsided by the time limit to put in the teams. The usual time to put in teams is usually 2.5 minutes, but in this tournament it is only 1 minute and 20 seconds. I can't do my usual team analysis and imagining team matchups. I just need to go with my usual teams and hope they win.
The first few battles were working out well. I was winning a good amount of battles, but I did lose one against Ehmaywuntee. We had a similar idea and strategy, but they had better cards I didn't have like Kinjo and Fiend. And then I had to face Jacekw.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_IpDraOOUZbuQr94YcTUy&ref=outwars
As luck would have it, I faced Jacekw on a 99 mana battle. In all my battles in this tournament, I think this was the battle where I was completed overwhelmed. Just looking at his lineup, I already knew I lost before the battle even began. The battle was over by round 3, and I was only able to kill Arkemis.
I had already won a few battles, so my confidence was slowly increasing. I lost to Ehmaywuntee but we had similar teams, so I didn't mind it much. But this battle really showed how much of an advantage having a bigger selection of cards has. I started to second guess the teams I have already submitted. I had to collect myself and play a few ranked battles before I went back to the tournament again.
At the end of Round 1, I ended up with a 7-2 record, which was enough to get me into the Final Round. I had two opponents that Fled the battle, which helped. While my record seems good, there were a few that had a 9-0 record. Nitroage, Dstampede, Jacekw, and Splinterstonks were just a few of those that were unbeaten.
During the Final Round, I expected the battle will be even harder. So before I entered my teams I played a few ranked battles to shake off any rust, and to get into the groove of things. I played my usual teams and brushed up on my strategy.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_8rlhkH0VzcJYSiAwjm7d&ref=outwars
I wasn't really expecting to make it to the Final Round. I entered it fully happy to receive the 500 DEC for the 65-128, or maybe even the 2000 DEC if I was lucky. But since I did make it to the Final Round, I plan on working even harder and trying for the higher rewards. With only 222 participants, almost all of us are guaranteed the 2000 DEC. If I can get to 3k, 6k, or maybe even 8k I would be ecstatic. I only do well in the SPL novice tournaments, and only once on the bronze tournament. I don't usually have a fighting chance in tournaments with rewards as high as this.
As I was entering my battles, I was fully focused with little to no distractions. No music, or twitch streams in the background. My attention was solely on the battles. I won a few battles which felt great. As I won more, the more stress starts to build up. I didn't want to choke under the pressure so I try to calm myself in between battles.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_PSKMhewPkB1UiLg6rXgk&ref=outwars
I was able to defeat Truls with a team I just came up on the fly. I defeated the 8-1 Kazuyuking, and the 9-0 Splinterstonks. I was on a roll, but the pressure kept on mounting. It was then that I faced Ehmaywuntee again. Ehmay had a 8-1 record, and only lost to Jacekw. Since we were in the same group, I think our group ranking was Jacekw, then Ehmaywuntee, and then me. This was my chance to get my revenge.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_KBPnhP9C8mg8N46rPyB7&ref=outwars
In the end I still lost against Ehmaywuntee. This was a crushing defeat. I racked up a few wins already and I was eyeing a top 4 finish. After I beat Splinterstonks, I was even thinking that I had a chance at 1st place. I collected myself did a few ranked battles. Once I won a few ranked battles, I then entered the rest of my teams.
With under an hour left in the tournament I was constantly checking the standings. When I finished my battles I was in the second position behind Jiabazai overall. There were a few players like Jacekw that have not yet submitted their teams though so I was very anxious. When all my battles finished, I ended up with a 7-1 record.
With less than 30 minutes remaining in the tournament, there were still some battles that have not started. I saw a few players starting to put their teams in. I was constantly checking the rankings every few minutes. Among the ones with battles remaining, Nitroage and Jacekw were the only ones left with the chance of getting a first place. I was wishing we can have a 6 way tie so we can all get a share from the 22222 DEC.
But then Nitroage won a battle, pushing him to first. Jacekw still had a chance to tie for first, but he started losing. Maybe the dwindling timer for the tournament got to him, or maybe he wasn't in his A-game, but his final battle where he lost to Pero82 placed him outside of the top 5.
The image above is the final ranking of the tournament. I frequently see Nitroage in all tournaments I join, and have faced him frequently so I know he is a strong player. He got the 22222 DEC. The 2nd to 5th placers shared the 10000 DEC and got 9500 DEC each. This was more than I was expecting to get, so I will gladly take it with no regrets.
A lot of the participants had more than 100k power, and some even had more than a million [Jacekw had +17M]. . I didn't rent for this tournament, and I only fought with my 50k power. Apart from Mycelia and Spirit Hoarder, I only had Legendary Reward cards. It is nice to see that my novice tournament experience was rewarded with this top 3 win. I hope this can serve as an inspiration to newer or weaker players to keep playing, and to keep optimizing their strategies.
That is it for my 3rd LLAC Tournament post. I would like to thank Hametaro and LLAC for creating this tournament and providing the rewards. I hope there are more soon, and look forward to it.
Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement. And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.
If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link
