Hello my fellow Splinters! Hope you all are doing amazing.
Today after a very long time, I played some ranked in #Splinterlands. I was on a break but now I'm back! The season also just ended so it was a good time to be back.

It felt really good to be back. Especially when, I won my first ranked battle after the break. Winning my first ranked battle after a long time felt… different. Not loud excitement, not jumping around, but a quiet sense of relief. It was a relief because I still knew how to play the game and how all the mechanics and strategies work.

𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖡𝖠𝖳𝖳𝖫𝖤

The matchup was fairly decent. My opponent only played the Life element in their previous matches. Mana cap was 56, so that was also pretty good and their were no rulesets & I could use any element cards. Honestly, even though the battle rules were decent, I was still a bit nervous. I think it was mostly because I had not played in a long time.

Team selection took longer than usual, and that’s a good sign. I checked my collection. I avoided experimenting too much. I chose cards I understood, not cards that looked strong on paper.

I went for the fire summoner, Barthalamas. In my team, I used 4 neutral element monsters and 2 fire element monsters. My opponent's team was also pretty good.

The beginning of the match was pretty intense but it looked like that I was winning because I picked my units strategically.

Halfway through the match at round four, I realized something important: my team made sense. Even when I lost some monster, the formation still held. That is when confidence quietly came back.

The last few turns were tense but clean. No lucky miracle. No sudden swing. Just slow, steady advantage building up. It felt really good when the last unit of my opponent fell and then the victory screen showed up.

I have won lots of battles in Splinterlands before. Some with bad teams, some with rented cards, some just by luck. But this one mattered because it came after doubt. It reminded me that breaks do not erase skill.
This win also reminded me why I liked ranked mode in the first place. Not for rewards. Not for SPS. But for the feeling of thinking, planning, and seeing it work.