Battle Burns

tarazkp(86)

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Splinterlands

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There are a host of changes coming to ranked play at Splinterlands for next season, and it is going to disrupt many aspects of the game. And, with so many changes, it is hard to predict exactly how it will affect individual players, and many people have questions.

So, what do the new Splinterlands battle changes mean for you?

I have no idea.

The changes

There will no longer be leaderboards for any league except Champion

There will no longer be maximum level limits for cards nor will there be penalties for low level cards

Players will no longer be able to choose not to advance to a higher league (since leagues will just represent a rating range)

Matchmaking will no longer be limited by league and will seek to match players with the opponent closest to them in rating

The SPS reward pool for ranked battles will no longer be divided by league, and will instead be one single reward pool for Modern format and a separate, single reward pool for Wild format

On top of these:

Players will always gain 20 rating points for a win and lose 20 rating points for a loss, regardless of the rating of their opponent.

Win streak will get 40

No win streak in Champion League

Okay... So, while I have no idea about the actual impacts, I feel that this might play into my favor in some regards, because I tend to get few streaks, but many losses on RNG to players that are far below my rating, which means that I struggle my way up into Champion levels getting 10 points at a time, then a 24, then a loss, then a ten.... then get trashed for 300 points in a stream of losses, losing 36 points at a time.

And, I think it is a good move to remove the league leaderboard overall, because it is pretty silly to have people who could be battling in Champion, fighting it out in Diamond for a leaderboard prize. As a result of this, I think that there will be more people looking to rent and level up cards, because now the incentive is to get as high as possible on the boards, as it means getting greater rewards from the single reward pool. Getting as high ass possible should be the goal of any game, right?

Pass to the left.

The fact is, that it is the same set of accounts that are getting onto the leaderboards, but they aren't necessarily the ones putting in the most effort. Incentivizing all players to get as high as possible should create a better overall experience, as there will be a more accurate guide as to ranking. But, one thing that will also be incentivized is to buy more energy in order to climb higher in the rankings, and score more points.

This means that it will be in people's best interest to spend their energy, rather than climbing to the top of the boards, and then waiting. It also means that the people who wait until the last few days to play, smashing through on streaks scoring heavily against higher rated players, will stop too. Instead, they will likely have to play more of the season, if they want to get near the top. In a 14 day season, there are 336 energy points available, but currently the lowest in the T50 is there with only 18 games played, and 18 wins.

Unfortunately...

This also means that there is more incentive to cheat. In modern where there are meant to be no bots or Battle Helpers, there is added incentive to play more, and win more. So, there will likely be an increase in the dishonorables who are using the battle helpers to get into the reward positions.

That doesn't happen though... does it....

Overall though, I think it is going to be interesting to see how these changes affect people's game strategy, the games played in each "league" bracket in comparison, the rental markets, the amount of combines to move up leagues, the number of energy bought on the market, the reward distribution, the ....