Beginners Guide to Tournaments

Its been a long time since I've been in a tournament. Running a guild, getting quests done, and general daily life mean I haven't looked at the tournament roster.

However, my main guild was sponsoring a tournament so I figured I had to join.

As you can tell, I wasn't the winner. I placed way down at 53rd. Now that may seem pretty awful but lets look at a few details: First: I won 19 or 28 battles or a win rate of about 68% which means I gave better than I got and there are some very good opponents in the tournaments!

But looking at the tournament details there is a lot more information for those people who are scared of tournaments:

First: It's bronze league!

That really means something. I happen to know this battler and know that they are top 10 ranked in Champion.

.

They are really good, but they are handicapped to the level of cards that new players are often playing at.

Second: No Legendary Summoners

No getting my butt kicked by Yodin, or Scarred Llama, or having to battle it out with the Devil Kitty. My regular summoners are going to be as powerful as theirs.

Third: No Alpha/Beta cards

So those old super powerful cards aren't going to be in the mix.

...........

However, then I've got to look at the rewards. It costs 10 DEC to enter and only the top 25 get more than 10 DEC. Since there are a maximum of 1000 players my chances of getting more value back than my entry fee are pretty limited.

Why would I enter then?

It's nice to pit my deck up against Premium players. I play in Silver so often that I rarely play against the top eschelon of players. Watching my games in this league I can pick up tips and tricks to make my gameplay better which is exactly what I did.

Indeed. After the tournament was over I took at look at the winner's battle list:

Notice Splinterlands vs Saffisara : 2400 Rank vs 3816 (Silver vs Champion). Watching those battles helps me tweak my game and see how the big boys roll.

............................

You can also watch the tournaments for 'no lose' tournaments. It's not super common but often times there will be tournaments where your chances of winning at least something is far more than your entry fee.

For example this tournament: Only has 50 people and 40 people get prizes. Unless you are in the bottom 20% you get more than you pay. Not bad odds. Especially when entry is only 1 single DEC.

A few tips if you are interested.

ONE Watch for entry fees and requirements VS the prizes.

A 1 DEC fee is pretty much open for everyone. Others have much higher entry fees. Some have SPS staking requirements and others cost a lot of SPS to enter.

TWO Watch what cards and levels are allowed.

With only new cards allowed and only Bronze level with no Legendary cards its pretty first time friendly.

Others like this one may not be so welcoming. (Only gold foil cards can be used and any type common to legendary and all sets)

THREE Watch what type of tournament it is.

Some tournaments are 'anytime' where you just have to show up within 24 hours of tournament date and enter your battles. Other are timed where you have to be online at a certain time to make sure you place your battles.

FOUR Always look closely at all the tournament details.

Take this one for example: At first glance 100 DEC entry fee seems steep. Look closer though. It's Bronze with no legendaries so new players have a chance. More importantly look at who gets prizes: Anyone in top 75 gets 101 DEC and there are only 60 people entered.

If the tournament enters soon you could enter as the 61st person, place dead last, and still walk away winning more than you lost.

If you feel like a little tougher competition or want to look for a way to bring in a little extra reward money look at the tournament every now and then you just might find something interesting.

Thanks for reading.