I really think your channel is not appreciated enough! Probably because most people are too lazy to listen to in-depth analysis without any flashy videos/images.
I for one think you offer great value to the community and I very much like the clear and structured way in which you present your thoughts. Keep up the good work!

As for the issue at hand, I'm very certain by now that we only have around 30-50k real players and the rest are bots. The near future of Splinterlands doesn't look too good either, because at the end of the day we need new players to grow and they aren't coming (at least not at the scale the team expected them to). A potential upcoming recession also won't help with that. So while there are a lot of exciting changes coming this year, I think we first need to "survive" a potential bear cycle. This will offer some great opportunity for acquiring assets, but the question ultimately is, if Splinterlands will be around afterwards and for the first time sadly, I'm not too bullish anymore either...

Great investigation. Keep it up. I think it's clear by now that : 1.bots are here to stay 2. SL don't give a fuck. So now, what's our response as players ? There's unfortunately not much that can be done. Which make me think.. has SL team stated their position on SL being an investment plaform ? I mean, what in botting is considered gaming ? That's my fear with SL... It turned into an investment first.

I dont see the "extracting value from the game" the issue. Afterall, they paid their spellbook. It's an investment. What what annoys me is stricly the unfair advantage bots have with processing data, having access to databases of match/results. I'm against tool such as splintertools. Think about how silly you'd be in a chess/poker/scrabble game before your every move you'd dig up a reference book which would tell you exactly the best move in a given state. (for ref, I have a master degree in AI, AI players will destroy SL overtime). Who would want to play against you ? It's only profitable now cause a portion of the playerbase don't use the tools and you're winning against those. I don't see why we keep accepting this.

I’m not so pessimistic about the future of the game, I think the base is strong. 30-50k players is a good number. But one way or another this “leak” should be patched, those “abusers” needs to be adressed and asked to stop their malpractice! Bot farming should be licensed and the network traffic should be analyzed! Thanks for the investigation !PIZZA !PGM

eye-opening. So many moving pieces and these are legitimate concerns. When put into the context of new rewards overhaul and speculation on actual player base. Uncertainty comes to mind. We'll see what the future holds. Sharing this on https://twitter.com/PraetoriaDigest.