League Lock Proposal (Version 2.0)

Hello fellow Splinterlanders!

This post is a follow up to the discussion we've been having in the Discord DAO Discussion Thread found here: https://discord.com/channels/447924793048825866/1181632935540039731

EDIT: The ENTIRE section about reworking tournaments has been removed! It is being discussed instead in the "Tournament Rework" section of Discord which will have its own proposal. This is now SOLELY for discussion and implementation of a RANKED League Lock and anything to do with tournaments will be handled separately, including what tournaments you are able to play in without additional fees based on your Ranked League.

What is a League Lock?

A league lock would be a choice that you make when you start playing in a new ranked season. You would start by choosing what league you would like to participate in (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Champion) and you would remain in that league for the entirety of the season. There would be set minimum requirements in place to ensure that underprepared accounts could not enter a league they would not be competitive in (a combination of staked SPS / CP) to prevent ratings inflation by win trading. During the season, you would not be able to move up into the next league, nor down into a previous league. You can always choose a new league next season if the one you previously chose was either too easy, or too hard, as long as your account meets the requirements. All players would start a new season with the minimum points for that league, and even if you go below the minimum you would remain in that league. The league lock would apply separate for modern and wild, with different requirement to enter each. You can be in a different league in Modern vs Wild within the same season.

Benefits of a League Lock:

Prevents being forced to move down a league at end of season and fight your way back up through a league you don't want to participate in.
Allows you to use the cards you've leveled in the appropriate league instead of being stuck in a lower league than your collection would allow (IE: you have a gold level deck, but are stuck in bronze)
Encourages card / SPS purchasing / renting since you would immediately be able to use them at higher leagues.
Allows new players to "skip" bronze and move into a league where there are more abilities to get a better feel for the mechanics of the game.
Prevents returning players with established collections from having to reenter the game in bronze.
Allows players to "try out" different leagues to find the one they like most and play in it consistently since each league has a different meta.
Creates "fighting champions" within a league since players will all start at the minimum point level and have to work their way up along with everyone else.
Prevents playing for only a few days and locking up a leaderboard position, then switching leagues since no one will have a "head start" with a point lead when starting a new season (ties into above re: "fighting champions")
Ensures you are battling other players in your league, not getting matched up with players in a higher league where you are (typically) disadvantaged, nor matching with a lower league where you are (typically) advantaged.
Simplifies the league experience as "tiers" (IE: Silver 1 / 2 / 3) would be largely just for visual purposes since earnings are based on SPS staked and there would be no "seasonal ratings reset", just the choice of your next "league lock" the following season.

EDIT: As per a great suggestion by @GhostlyBG only Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond would start off "unlocked" and available for anyone to enter right away. This would allow you to play ALL level of cards, up to max, aside from Champion. To "unlock" Champion you would first need to get the appropriate amount of points ONCE (3700 points), then it would be available to be "selected" in future league locks. This ensures you have the necessary skills to enter Champion league instead of just getting to choose it without proving your skills and putting in the "work" to get there. EDIT2: The addition of Diamond was made in order to allow use of cards that may be max level, ensuring that all cards you owned would be able to be played where they've been upgraded to. Thanks GhostlyBG!

Minimum Requirements per league:

This is up for discussion, but based on the pre-existing requirements and penalties I would propose a combination of both CP and SPS staked in order to enter each league.

The SPS staked would follow the existing formula, with minimum entry being around the 6x multiplier point. This could be increased or decreased based on discussion, but entering (for example) Silver with only 515 SPS staked when you start at 1000 points, and moving up in points to even Silver 2 (1300) would result in very little earnings since to retain 6x RP you would need 1411 SPS staked at that point, requiring you to rent more to earn anything at all. Again, this "minimum starting point" could be modified through discussion, but we don't want to make the SPS gate either so low that people enter and we have ratings inflation, nor so high that current players become locked out.

As such I would propose the following minimum SPS staked for each league:

Bronze: 0 SPS
Silver: 500 SPS
Gold: 5000 SPS
Diamond: 25000 SPS
Champion: 50000 SPS

From a CP standpoint there has already been much discussion in regards to Wild format in the anti-bot discussion started by Bronko. I believe those numbers are fair for wild, but would need to be reduced to allow new players to participate in modern, especially bronze league so that a new player would be able to start playing right away.

So to start with Wild, there are the proposed numbers from the anti-bot proposal for consistency:

Bronze: 20,000 CP
Silver: 50,000 CP
Gold: 120,000 CP
Diamond: 250,000 CP
Champion: 400,000 CP

When it comes to modern I would propose the following numbers:

Bronze: 0 CP
Silver: 3,000 CP
Gold: 12,000 CP
Diamond: 50,000 CP
Champion: 100,000 CP

The CP of soulbound cards would not count towards these calculations unless they have been unlocked.

To summarize then, these would be the total Requirements to enter each league and format from both an SPS and CP standpoint:

WILD

Bronze: 20,000 CP / 0 SPS
Silver: 50,000 CP / 500 SPS
Gold: 120,000 CP / 5000 SPS
Diamond: 250,000 CP / 25000 SPS
Champion: 400,000 CP / 50000 SPS

MODERN

Bronze: 0 CP / 0 SPS
Silver: 3,000 CP / 500 SPS
Gold: 12,000 CP / 5000 SPS
Diamond: 50,000 CP / 25000 SPS
Champion: 100,000 CP / 50000 SPS

Going lower than these minimums once you are locked into a league would result in you being unable to play until the minimums are once again restored, and would remove you from being able to claim leaderboard prizes until meeting the requirements. This prevents people from renting to the appropriate CP / SPS at the start of the season only to then drop their rentals and play below the minimum requirements thereafter.

In summary, a league lock would be beneficial to both the new player experience, as well as the existing players based on the points raised above. I hope this proposal can find support from the greater Splinterlands community as I feel it would be a valuable addition to the game.

Thank you for reading, and may the RNG ever be on your side.
Psilence!

(Edit: Thank you to @davemccoy for helping shape this proposal and offering his feedback before publishing it!)