Hello there.

The team has applied the Ranked battle rework last Feb 29. This is a very big change that affects all players, and is sure to change the meta, and the battles as a whole. I have played some battles after the change and I will discuss my thoughts and observations. Since most of my posts have been geared towards newer and weaker players, I will try to keep that perspective in this post.

There are a lot changes, and I will try to go through most, if not all, of them. Let's get to it.

Card level caps have been removed

Whether you're playing in Bronze or Gold, players can now use max level Summoners, and in effect, as well as max level monsters. In conjunction with this, card level penalties on owned/rented/delegated cards have been removed. Do note that using starter/ghost cards still incur a penalty. A lot of whales really like this since they can go to Champ league without much worry. Some haven't gone to Diamond and higher because they are using non max level cards.

For regular Bronze players, the first day after the change can both be funny and frustrating at the same time. I faced a good amount of Champion Wild players probably transferring to Modern with max level cards. Most of my battles have been against Silver and up level cards. For players that haven't combined their martyr cards, this is really good news since they can trigger the buff earlier while not getting a penalty.

I don't think this should cause any concern. I actually expected this after this big of a change. I just told my Bronze guildmates that this is just a sign to just chill for the first few days of the season, and let all these Champ players move up. This also leads to the next change.

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Players can no longer camp in a league, and only Champ league has leaderboards

Before these changes, some players preferred to stay in lower leagues for various reasons. The strong players were aiming for the Leaderboard rewards, some wanted to earn SPS with cheap GF rentals, some want to play in lower league tournaments, and players like me that don't have enough staked SPS. There should be other reasons, but these are the usual reasons. Because of this change, once a player's rating reaches the minimum for the next league, they will automatically move up. It will be interesting to see if players will make tournament accounts.

This is really good for beginner/weaker players. Since the strong players will be forced to move up, there shouldn't be a lot of lopsided battles anymore. I think this will cause a big change in the Bronze meta. The current best teams are the Zyriel/Weapons Training + Taunt teams. But since they are really strong, most players using this strategy will inevitably move up to Silver. I think this will result in a healthy mix of Gladiator and Rebellion teams. As players earn and combine more reward cards, they will inevitably go to Silver as well. But until then, the level of play should be pretty close. This also leads to the next change.

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Matchmaking is now via rating

Previously, players are only matched with others in the same league. But now, only rating is taken into consideration. If a Bronze player has a rating of 990, they can be matched up against at Silver player with 1010 rating. This change further enhances the possibility of fighting opponents close to one's skill level. Of course, in the early parts of the change, there can be fights against overpowered opponents like my example above. But ideally, once everything has stabilized, matches should feel closer than before.

A common complaint before the changes was how players sometimes have long queue times, or they are matched with an opponent that is too strong/weak. It can feel bad fighting these lopsided battles. What exacerbates these problems though, is that losing to an opponent that has a significantly low rating means losing a lot of rating. This leads to the next change.

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Simplified rating system [+-20/40]

The team has changed the rating system to a simpler format. From an ELO system, where the gain/loss of rating is computed differently for each battle, they changed it to a flat +-20 per win/loss. In the case of a win streak, it is up to +40. Gone are the days of getting -36 rating, and I will miss getting a +72 win streak rating. Do note that the win streak rating bonus is not applicable in Champ.

Having played a few games, I am a bit conflicted with it. Getting just +20 after beating a very strong opponent with higher rating is a bit sad. It might also be because I fought a lot of whales transitioning to Modern that I felt like moving up in rating is very slow. I got stuck in the 500s for a while. Some have said that this change takes a bit of skill out of the equation and it will be a matter of who has the deeper pockets, and are able to buy more energy. This leads to the next update.

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Energy Cost, Rating Reset, and SPS Pool

Energy cost is no longer a flat amount throughout the league. It now adjusts per tier as well. It is now cheaper to get energy at lower Bronze tiers than before. This should be helpful for newer players. I am not familiar with the cost for Champ before the change, but 500 per energy can add up. I am hoping that with the increase in competition, we can burn more DEC through the energy purchases.

For the EOS reset, Bronze seems similar. I believe the adjustments are just so that they are divisible by 20. I don't really remember Silver and up, but Silver 3 and 2 feels very low. This can be a big thing especially since the SPS pools are now combined for all leagues. Bronze no longer has its own SPS pool. I would assume that this is really good for higher ranked players, and can cut down the rewards in Bronze. One of the team's message is they want players to want and continue to move up, and this definitely encourages that.

That is it for my Ranked Battle Overhaul post. I don't know yet how this will affect my posts. It might be difficult to create posts for beginners if I'm playing in Bronze. But overall, I think the changes are healthy for the game.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement. And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link