As many of you now know, I have been playing the Steem Blockchain game called SPLINTERLANDS (originally known as SteemMonsters) for about two months now. The main goal is to of course have some blockchain fun while playing the game, but it also has some seriousness to it since it is a cryptocurrency blockchain game where you can earn Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) and also be rewarded with playing cards.

The fun part is easy, and that is to just play. It is a fun strategy type game, where you have to match wits, skill and a little luck in order to defeat your opponents and their choices of monsters. Once you understand how the battles are set up, and you begin to grasp the pros and cons of each Splinterlands' Monster, then the fun can become a little more serious, especially as you climb up the battles ranks. In order to climb up into the higher leagues with higher end of season rewards, you do have to tone down a little bit of the fun, and put on your serious strategist thinking cap on because your opponent will not only be doing the same, but they will be pitting their best Monsters against yours in order to keep you from winning and rising the ranks.

In my previous Splinterlands' post, I mentioned that after each season ends, all players get a demotion and must again battle their way up if they want to get back to their previous season's rank. As I stated, it is initially harder when the season first starts due to player demotions. Since many players of higher ranking with higher leveled up Monsters are now at lower leagues, this ups your chances of battling these players, making it more difficult to win and climb up in rank. My suggestion to offset this is to wait it out a little bit as those players battle and rank up, leaving you to battle others more on your level. I tend to just complete my quests in order to receive those rewards, then sit it out a bit until my next reward opportunity. Then as the days go by, it does get easier to rank up as the higher leveled player move up to.

The most recent thing I have also now enacted in order to ease my pursuit for Champion's League is to spend some of my hard battle earned DEC in order to Level up some of my Monsters. This has also helped me tremendously in beating my opponents because I tend to look back at lost battles to see which Monster was the weak link, and as my bag of Dark Energy Crystals grows, I will then spend some DEC to level up that weak link in my Splinterlands' armor. Between being patient early in the Season, using my DEC to level up weaker Monsters, and playing during "Off Peak" hours, I was able to break in Gold League III, and now with just a day or so left in the season, I have broken into Gold II league. I didn't think I was going to make it this season to Gold II, but I do believe these strategies have really helped me further along.

My next two goals are to participate in a SPLINTERLANDS' battle tournament and save some serious amount of DEC. Unfortunately, my availability has not coincided yet with that of a tournament event, but I am keeping my eye out for a Free Entry event. Hopefully I can win one of these tournaments, while also increasing my DEC. The reason I want to accumulate about 4,000 Dark Energy Crystals is because I want to buy a Life Summoner in order to level it up if I am to continue my quest into the Top League. A Level 1 Life Summoner is just not going to cut it in these higher leagues.

Going in a slightly different Splinterlands' direction, I did want to also mention that there are contests currently being held where you can win Splinterlands' goodies. I recently placed Second place in a SPLINTERLANDS' Digital Fan Art Contest, and received some awesome Monsters as prizes. Please go check out their post and see the First place winner by @yanes94 , it is an amazing piece of Splinterlands' Artwork. In fact, I think it is so good, she should consider putting the original up for sale on the blockchain. I know if there were an auction for it, I would most definitely submit a bid within my realm of possibility for owning that artwork. Amazing, Amazing artwork and congrats on the win @yanes94 and congrats to the other winners and thank you @splinterlands for even considering my entry and placing me 2nd; I am truly inspired and honored.

FULL STEEM AHEAD into the SPLINTERLANDS!!

+++ @streetstyle