Splinterlands: Lessons After the First Day of Playing with New Ranked Rewards System

The new ranked rewards system is in place since yesterday.

Although I thought I understood the system quite well, I still had a few surprises, being the first day and the switch from the old system to the new system.

Overall, I think the first day ended up okay-ish for me, that's because it probably would have been better if I hadn't made a few mistakes.

So, if you remember a post I wrote last week, I decided to stay in diamond last season thinking I'll be playing for diamond chests. For an element of comparison to future seasons when I would play for champ chests, I thought. And for the last chance to rent out my playing deck for the last part of the last season.

Well, I don't know what made me think I'd be playing for diamond chests. Since the new rules would be in full effect, my top achieved league last season was the one that gave the type of chests that I would play for. And that was Champion League, therefore, champ chests.

Ok, that was a miscalculation and I lost at least 1 day in gold 1 playing for champ chests for that, and probably a big chunk of day 2 too. Hopefully not longer.

The good part is that the rental income was pretty good for those days, so I don't regret stopping to rent my playing deck one last time.

The bad part is that I was in CL3 twice last season. And I could have stopped there and started from diamond 3. And to rent out my playing deck even sooner.

Ok, let's move past that.

What was good was that I started the new season with 100% ECR and with a pending DQ from last season.

So I got to complete that old-style DQ too. People who completed their DQ during the last 24h at the EOS most likely didn't have an extra DQ.

What I did wrong was that I didn't claim my DQ rewards immediately after completing my DQ. Old habits - to withhold claiming the rewards until you rank up to the higher league, and receive rewards for the higher league.

That deprived me of at least 5% ECR-worth of focus points until I realized my mistake.

It also forced me to play mostly my focus splinter for the last couple of games to get to at least 1 champ chest on the focus mission before my ECR went too low for the day. This way I became more predictable and lost a little bit in rank.

Going forward my target will be to rank up early in the season, so I can earn more SP and FP sooner. I will most likely win at least 1 chest in the focus mission doing that no matter what. But most likely at least a few of them, because I only started playing the focus mission when my ECR was at 85% or below yesterday.

Even with all the mistakes, and I've done a few on my first day and preparing for it, I've done almost as expected:

The benchmark for me is the season rewards: 3 and a half champ chests in gold 1while losing at least a few matches at the end by playing the same splinter consecutively (even if I have multiple summoners for Water and the opponent didn't know how I'll play).

In my calculations I made last week for various scenarios, I considered in gold 1 I could earn 4 champ chests on season rewards (using linear progression to next chests), so I wasn't far.

To recap.

The good:

• nice rental income and free time (from playing Splinterlands) for 5+ days at the last EOS
• 3+1 champ chests under my belt
• had DQ rewards too
• started with 100% ECR

The bad:

• could have rented out earlier and started in diamond 3 at the same time
• still in gold 1
• bad management of claiming DQ rewards depriving me of FPs (this one can't be repeated)
• forced to play focus-mission-only at the end, as a result of the previous point

My next mission is to get out of gold ASAP. That has a much higher priority than any focus mission.

I heard people don't like some parts of the new ranked rewards system. I don't know... Maybe the focus mission is too harsh at the beginning of the season. But let's give it some time and let people adjust.

I want to see the new season rewards more time in action before I can judge. So far it works as intended from what I can see. And the mistakes were mine.

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