Splinterlands Sunday!: The Ups and Downs of Ranked Play

The conclusion of this post will probably depend on when I finish writing it but it has continued to be top of my mind on how volatile my experience has been over the last couple of Seasons of playing Splinterlands. I do not want my experience to be confused with me not liking or potentially quitting the game as that is not a consideration; however, as the community grows, the competitive nature of gaming starts to make the journey more challenging among other sensations.

After previously getting stuck in the Diamond Division, I decided to invest more into my Collection to improve my ability to compete more as the community grew. It immediately paid off as I was able to get into the Champion Division which has been a great place to be as the developers have made it worth the players while to rank up as more Reward Edition cards fuel Collections and value even more. When they introduce Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), the intensity increased even more as now a more direct financial incentive made the grind higher be more relevant for those seeking both entertainment or investment in the game.

Despite briefly being able to reach the Top 50 rank for a handful of Seasons after my investment, I have not been able to do so for a couple of Seasons now as the calibre of players has substantially increased. With the addition of investors and delegations of strong cards, the players of the community have started to distinguish themselves as they have been able no longer just rely on strong cards but also skill to climb the leaderboards. While I have been able to keep my Collection strong, my skills have not been able to scale accordingly as my time has been limited to my Daily Quests and Season end grinding for a top spot which has not worked out as of late. Even my tournament placements have come down substantially as this trend has carried over to that side as well.

However, I often find myself on a rollercoaster ride during the Season as it feels I either have really good days where I can get 4-5 win streaks to climb the ranked points quickly or I have miserable losing streaks which often reach 7-8 without a win. It is both rewarding and frustrating as it seems that there is never an average pace of wins and losses. This has made me go with the flow meaning that I often keep playing when on winning streaks and take a break when having a losing streak. My focus remains optimizing my Energy Capture Rate (ECR) for DEC as, like Steem Power, I want to ensure I never have it at 100% for too long as it is just a lost opportunity. These guidelines have made the gameplay more sustainable but it often still gets to me and has me wondering how it can improve.

Like Steem in general, I think the correcting factor will be more players. I am excited that the Kickstarter has been successful as the development team is now looking at using those funds to focus on two key tasks that could attract many more players to the game. First, they expect to finalize and rollout the mobile app version of the game which will surely add to the potential expansion of the community as mobile gaming is one of the fastest growing sectors in technology. They have also stated that they will also be using a portion of these funds to market the game externally in order to bring more players.

This will be a great opportunity for players to continue to rank and grow their Collections as competition will continue to increase. There will also be a portion of these new players that go all in and purchase and/or rent powerful cards to compete in the higher Divisions as well. I am already seeing this as I notice a handful of new players in the Diamond and Champion Divisions every Season. I have even been beaten by some of them which hurts as they often cost me plenty of ranked points particularly early in the Season.

The way I have seen the experience and journey is that I am enjoying it while it lasts as I know that some day in the future, I will no longer be as high ranked given the fact that I really don’t have the time or skill to be at the top of the leaderboards consistently. However, I think that my collection will continue to grow in value and provide me the opportunity to leverage it for opportunities around the ecosystem of the game which continues to grow. The game will expand past only the competitive system which will be a great experience to add for those of us with a diverse Collection focus!

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