There have been a few close calls before, but for the *first time in my Splinterlands "career" (some people live off of this income), I made it into Champions League II!!
I know you are thrilled!
Okay, this might not be a big deal for many, but I have played a lot of games over the last 8 months and it wasn't until quite recently that I was able to push into Champions at all and then despite getting close to progressing to the next tier, I would get hammered back to just scrape into the bottom again. This means that I start at the bottom of Diamond and if I lose the first round, I am suddenly struggling back in Gold.
I have a 48% win rate, which isn't very good - but it is better than this seasons, which is sitting at 46% and that is where it will stay, because I am not playing anymore rounds this season. To make it into Champion 2, I had to play a lot of rounds, even though I wasn't playing much initially and moving up as I waited a little longer than normal to start.
Like normal, I was close to moving up and then got knocked back down and last night, I got knocked all the way back to 3700 points. One more loss, and it would have been back to Diamond for me. I almost stopped there, but decided to roll the dice again - fuck it.
AS usual, I lost a lot of close games, but I also beat some pretty decent players from time to time and pulled a draw against @Bubke - we don't meet often, but when we do, I want to beat him!! I also pulled some other bigger name wins, but lost a lot of rounds where I probably shouldn't have too. I am still improving and picking what people might play for a round, but I am getting better at having the right cards available.
I rent a lot of cards and for the last week and a bit I have been playing, it has been around 2500 DEC a day. But, for anyone who knows the way I play, I am not in it for the direct P2E. I like that people can earn, but I have too many things going on with too many things, that I can't find the time to maximize everything - or anything for that matter.
My new rent strategy is to rent the staples as I start and then, as I get rounds that I need more cards for, I add them in. Before, I was just grabbing them all at the same time.
One Battle
One round I played today that I did get rightish for the most part was this one - but it goes to show how resilient that damn Cube can be under the Llama's control. If I had lost a card, it might have been a disaster for me.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=990f884270181beca6f90889fa67e4d1da041ad5&ref=tarazkp
So yeah, pretty happy with getting into Champions 2 - but I am unsure what happens next week, as I will be travelling for work, so I might not be able to do all of my usual crypto stuff, let alone play. I want to get the benefits of starting from D2 instead of D3, and I also want to see what the new rewards might look like. The new algorithms for rewards are coming into play and that means that there will be more loot chests in the lower leagues, but the higher leagues will have a better chance of rarer cards and gold foils. I wouldn't mind some decent cards, as I kind of feel I missed the boat on the "golden age of reward cards" - but that might be feeling only.
New Social Players
I don't read a lot of Splinterlands posts I think, well, at least I don't actively search for them, but there are some half decent writers out there playing, but they don't seem to know there is a whole Hive ecosystem to explore. 
@misterrogers
@misterrogers/kiss-me-im-irish-by-deportation-my-hive-introduction
@star-shroud
@star-shroud/shield-of-glory-brawls-of-steel
@shadowwolf888
@shadowwolf888/newly-on-board-splinterland-and-why-i-invest-heavily-into-this-blockchain-game
What is interesting is that they have come in through Splinterlands, but didn't realize there is more to the blockchain and then were pleasantly surprised when there was. But, what I wonder is, why doesn't the Splinterlands interface introduce the rest of the ecosystem? Yes, I know that it is separate and division can be useful, but what would be valuable is to have an in-game, embedded and curated page for user content. I think that this is a win-win scenario, as it helps build the social side further and gamify social interaction too - after all, this is a P2E game and that can include the social layers.
The beauty of Hive is that there are so many value feedback incentive mechanisms that can be utilized, that there is a path for everyone. For those playing Splinterlands, there is value in being able to engage with the community and that includes actual value that can be used to both support the Hive ecosystem and, perhaps increase investments into Splinterlands too.
The content that can be developed by the Splinterlands community can be diverse and look at all kinds of different aspects of the game, from card selection to gameplay, fan art to the tokenomics of the experience. All kinds of things can be included that are Splinterlands derived and, user built. Under normal circumstances on centralized social media and for games, this content is largely for the benefit of the game developers and investors - but Splinterlands is designed so that everyone is an investor. This means that supportive activity that can encourage usage, better experience and investment in and sink, has value. Plus, it gives a central point for key information, collected from decentralized sources, which can spread messages and encourage hype when it is needed.
A community page would be easy to integrate into the web interface at least and shouldn't be difficult for mobile, but makes an information loop mechanism that keeps people on the site even longer, without playing the game. This can notify in-game and link to the Discord events like the AMA when needed, or showcase events, sales, potions and of course, all of the best Splinterlands posts created and curated. @Splinterlands has a decent amount of stake to curate with and, there is plenty of player stake floating about to throw at decent posts, so why not use that to encourage further and integrate some of it into the interface for all to see?
Make it easy and valuable for Splinterlands people to build their game and social presence on Hive, and they will have even more reasons to keep active - because they will have become part of the community. The more reasons to stay, the more reasons to play.
Right, now this is getting off-track a bit, so I will bring the focus back to where it was meant to be - me getting into Champions 2.
Fuck yeah!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]