A proposal is being put forth to a vote of all staked SPS token holders to adjust the amount of reward shares awarded in ranked battles based on the level of cards used by the winning player in the battle.
The goal of this change is to encourage players to own and/or rent higher level cards and encourage combining cards by reducing the amount of reward shares earned by cards used in battles that are below the intended levels for each league.
Initially the concept of collection power was introduced in an attempt to ensure that players would need the appropriate level cards in order to participate in higher leagues; however, that system was relatively easy to work around and we are still seeing many players that are able to earn full rewards in higher leagues using low level cards.
With the recent changes to the ranked reward system, we now have the tools to better achieve this goal by limiting rewards based on the cards actually used in the battles rather than cards simply sitting in players' collections.
The table below details the proposed minimum level of cards of each rarity required to earn full rewards at each league.
| League | Common | Rare | Epic | Legendary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Silver | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Gold | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Diamond | 8 | 6 | 5 | 3 |
| Champion | MAX | MAX | MAX | MAX |
With this change, the reward shares calculation for each ranked battle win will be adjusted by the average of the level of each card used by the winning team in the battle compared to the minimum reward level for that card and for the player's current league as indicated in the table above.
There are a few important things to note about this proposed change:
- Any level of card is still able to be played in all leagues, it's just that cards played below the minimum level for the rarity and league will reduce the number of reward shares earned for that battle
- Cards played above the minimum level for the rarity and league will not increase the rewards that can be earned, nor will they be able to "make up" for reductions from other cards that are below the minimum level
- The level of card used will be for the actual card and not based on summoner level. For example, if a player is using a level 1 Obsidian and a level 5 Goblin Psychic then the Goblin Psychic will still be counted as a level 5 card for the reward shares calculation
- Starter cards will count as level 0
The following examples illustrate how the proposed change would affect reward shares earned under different scenarios:
Example 1
A player in Silver league wins a ranked battle with the following cards:
- Level 5 Common
- Level 1 Common
- Level 1 Rare
- Level 1 Legendary
The reward shares earned by this player will be roughly 70% of the total that they could have earned had they used higher level cards which is calculated as follows:
Example 2
A player in Gold league wins a ranked battle with the following cards:
- Starter Common
- Level 1 Common
- Level 1 Rare
- Level 1 Rare
- Level 1 Epic
The reward shares earned by this player will be roughly 20% of the total that they could have earned had they used higher level cards which is calculated as follows:
Ultimately, the Splinterlands team believes that this change will go a long way towards preventing some of the workarounds that some players are using in order to earn large amounts of rewards with cheap, low-level cards and should help encourage more card combining and provide more value to owning and renting higher level cards going forward.