Is Splinterlands eSports ready?

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I am playing Spinterlands for almost a year now and I can say that this game is really amazing. Everything is great, from the community, developers, and economy. Splinterlands started to aim for eSports as that would put this game on the big scene. But is Splinterlands really ready for eSports and the BIG scene? Let's find out!

Number of players

Now when the bots are gone(at least partly), it seems that Splinterlands has around 170k active players. That is not a small number but also it is not a big number either. In comparison with Hearthstone (and I will do that comparison a lot in this post), that is a tiny amount as Hearthstone peaked at a little over 8 million players. Yes, that comparison may not be fair as Hearthstone is free and it is not a crypto game but still, we could use more players that are not bots. If we want a good game we must compare Splinterlands with the "big boys" and Hearthstone is certainly the best game in the TCG industry or at least, it was.


Good things

What are the good things? Well, the game is fast. It is really fast. You can spend 2-3 minutes watching how the game played out or you can skip it entirely. It means that matches are fast and you are not stuck in the match that you know you will lose, like in Hearthstone or League of Legends.

We could also say that Splinterlands is an auto-brawler. When describing it like that we could say that auto-brawler could be a bad thing. Most of the time those kinds of games are not engaging enough.

That could change with the new land expansion. We could expect spells that will be able to alter the game, not in advance but in an additional phase during the battle. If implemented well that could be extremely fun and game-changing. Can't wait for that!


Splinterlands has one of the best economies in the NFT gaming world and it is certainly here to stay. The game is here since 2018 and even in this Bear market, Splinterlands sold over 9.5 million Chaos legion packs which is an income of over 35 million USD. Don't forget there are still 4.5 million Chaos Legion packs and at least 3+ million Rift Watcher packs which should go for 5 USD each. That is additional 23 million USD that the company should get through pack sales in the next year. Seems like a stable business and it gives us the confidence that developers can continue their work on this project even in these unstable times.


Incoming exposure

Splinterfest is around the corner where a lot of new things will be introduced about Splinterlands. That should attract more new players and more new investors. A crazy new partnership/project has been announced - GLS or Genesis League Soccer that will certainly bring more players into Splinterlands. And when I say more, I have a feeling that Splinterlands will become a multi-million player game.


Scarcity and the deflationary mechanic are core elements on which this game is built. At this moment you could build a solid bronze deck for around 50 USD. That deck will return you some money over time depending on the time that you invest into the game. With rising number of players cards are getting scarce, therefore you cards should be worth more in the future. Of course, don't take this as investing advice, do your research before you invest into anything.

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How much random is too much random?

As I said already, I really like Splinterlands and I play this game every chance I get but we must be honest about game mechanics and the state of the game. This game does have some problems and I am not talking about bots or exploits. These problems could be solved. It is on me and the rest of the community to point them out and then it is on the developers to address those problems - so let's do our job!

Speed - oh boy, how much I could talk about speed.

With each extra point of speed a monster has, compared to its opponent, its chance of not being hit by this opponent increases by 10%.

If you ask me this mechanic should be removed as it gives a lot of randomness into the game. With that kind of mechanic, you can't be sure will your monster hit the enemy or if it will not hit the enemy. Sometimes 1-speed difference between monsters can determine the outcome. I don't know about you guys but I don't like it.

Yes, sometimes those kinds of situations were going in my favor and sometimes not. But it seems that that kind of mechanics only brings chaos into the game. Imagine losing a 1 million dollar tournament because of a 1-speed difference and that lucky miss by the opponent's monster. Not good publicity for an eSports game right?


What to do? Maybe just use speed as an indication of what monster will attack first. Yes, maybe we could lose that speed meta but I am sure that those cards could be reworked and optimized.

Abilities - if something is worse and more random than speed then those are abilities. And to be clear, not all abilities just certain abilities like Blind, Dodge, and Flying.


Blind - All enemy Melee & Ranged attacks have an increased chance of missing their target. +15% chance of evading.


Dodge - Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks. +25% Dodge vs melee/ranged.


Flying - Has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability. +25% chance of evading.


Scenario: Player A has a monster with 8 Speed and it has Blind debuff(15% chance to miss). Player B has a monster with 1 Speed. Player's A monster misses his attack because of Blind debuff and it is not considered a 7-speed difference.

Example: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_55b84a992a7c71b8474b29d0195db710&ref=vjekich

This is really annoying and it happened to me more than once. I think that the way abilities work with speed should be reworked. If speed is high enough maybe that monster should ignore abilities such as Blind and Dodge. Flying is something else, as a melee monster should not be able to hit the flying target.


In eSports skill is everything so losing to a random miss/hit feels bad. Some could say that there is a beauty in watching a lucky team win a game, unless, of course, you are on the other end of the RNG. Splinterlands is trying to become a serious eSport while at the same time having ridiculously random abilities and mechanics. Only one of those is possible. While having fun and random abilities is good for new players as it gives them a chance against seasoned players it is bad for eSports.

This is exactly what happened to Hearthstone and it is partly responsible for its decline in eSports and in Twitch streams/views. On the other hand, the randomness is what could keep Splinterlends unpredictable and fresh just as was the case with Hearthstone.

So how much random is too much random?

For me, it could be frustrating when I lose a match because of Dodge or Blind ability in a game where I do have much more speed than my opponent. Items in the game should reduce randomness in the game but still I feel that abilities like Dodge, Blind, and Flying should be changed.

Balancing cards

In my gaming experience, I found that Trading Card Games often have issues with balancing cards that already exist in the game and with the new cards that are just coming into the game. While this is sorted out with Wild/Modern formats some cards could still feel bad or overpowered. Same as Blizzard with Hearthstone, Splinterlands tend to avoid balancing cards that already exist in the game. I understand that it feels bad to "nerf" card like Yodin or Llama as those cards are really expensive but sometimes that is a must.

Splinterlands is nerfing cards through new cards or "counters" to specific play. That is a good way to keep players that invested in those expensive cards happy. On other hand it is a slow process that often leaves small players unhappy. But well, you can't keep everyone happy all the time and I understand that. But sooner or later there will come a card that will completely break the meta like Yogg-Sarron in Hearthstone.

Summary

Splinterlands is an amazing game and it is just getting better. Many amazing updates are just around the corner like Riftwatchers, Land, Non-Card Market, Ranked SPS Rewards and many more. It is impossible to cover every aspect of this game because it is a huge game but I would like that devs focus more on problems like randomness and visual aspect of the Splinterlands. Even without things I mentioned this game is amazing and I will continue to enjoy it whenever I can. No I am off to planing my strategy for Riftwatchers that are coming soon. Stay tuned!

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It is the perfect time to buy some cards and rebuild your deck. Packs are not selling as fast as expected so prices are stable. I expect them to go down even more once we sell more packs. But there is always a possibility of new players joining and buying tons of cards, so be careful. If you are not playing #splinterlands yet, now is the perfect opportunity to join while you can get all those amazing cards at special prices. Come and join Splinterlands Discord and find out more.

Official Splinterlands Discord: https://discord.gg/A6yNcVqbU6

If you are new here

If you are new here, #splinterlands is the amazing #NFT trading card game with the #play2earn model. That means you can have a lot of fun AND you can earn money (DEC - Dark Energy Crystals) at the same time. If you don't have an account yet consider registering with my link. If you sign up with my referral link, please DM me and I will send you 100 DEC that will help you start with the game(of course if I see you on my referral list).

https://splinterlands.com?ref=vjekich

Have fun and see you on the battlefield.

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