A very good write up. If there was one thing that needs to be prioritized to be fixed it is the League Levels and match ups. If they (Steem Monsters), feels the rewards are to generous, (they keep cutting back on them), then the first place they need to cut back on them is in the Champion League. Just because a person hits the Champion league should not entitle them to the name nor the reward. If the Seattle Seahawks and the Oakland Raiders play the first game of the Season and Seattle wins, that fact does not entitle them to a season Super Bowl Ring. Steem Monsters seems to think it does.
The Ranking system is broke and has been broke for a long time with no apparent repair attempts. In no other sport ranking system do you have number 5 seed battling number 535 seed. To much chance of a one off mistake and or injury. The Super Bowl is not between and NFL team and a High School team. It is between two teams in the same league. Bots are not a major problem and would never be a major problem if they fixed the ranking system.
I will still watch the developments, and even still play the odd game or two, but when I got to the point of clicking skip to end button over 85% of the time it simply means the challenge was not there, the fun was not there, and that it was nothing more than an exercise in futility.
I loved the concept of a game of chance that was backed with skill, a very good concept they had, they have lost direction on the skill part and so have the players in the Champion League. It is unlikely any of the so called Champion League Players would play in a challenge where if they lost; they lost two of their fully maxed Legendary Cards, or even just a fully maxed Regular Card.
It started out as Poker/Chess combo, now it seems as if it is nothing but a game of dice, no skill involved just luck.
Lol, I would never enter into a challenge where I am putting my maxed cards on the line. Do you know how much I had to pay for them? ;) Perhaps some of the champion players would, but for me, I'm not a gambler and my skill level is not good enough to gamble at that high stake.
I do think skill is involved, but the cards you have do make a difference as well, i.e., it would be difficult to beat someone with speed 6 cards if you don't have any of your own. They will always be first to attack. Only way to beat them would be through sheer anticipation that they would play those cards, and if they don't, then you've lost the gamble.
There is definitely a bit of skill involved, but when you have level 3,4,5 and a few level 6 cards, against maxed cards you are going to lose. Many of the choices made if they were of the same level cards as the opponent would have won the game. Beating higher level cards is not always impossible, just very unlikely, I have beat level 7 and 8 cards a couple of times with my level 5 and 6 cards, purely because of card choice, they went with magic, I went with reflect, type of thing. But it only happens rarely.
I do understand the cost of the game, I too have spent money for booster packs, perhaps not as much as some, but still I have spent some. I had hopes of the tournaments, I still hold some hope out for them. I even came in third on a recent tourney with 14 players ten of which I am pretty sure were in the top 50 season ending, so maxed deck does not equate to skilled. Lack of maxed decks does also not equate to un-skilled at the game, but right now it is a fishing game with dynamite used as the bait, toss it out there let it blow then go get the stunned fish.
I am glad to see you keep your mind open and I understand your point... I think they are going to be working on that, but when they can fix the matching issue I don't know. I do think you are right about this game intended to be a game of chess and I think we will get there, but might take some time for sure. Thanks for everything you've done and your complaint is different than most btw... Most people only care about the rewards and you cared about the experience only. To me that makes your opinion super valuable and I hope they listen to your frustration!
I enjoy both chess and poker, this game initially was a very good blending of the two, at least I thought so. Now it feels like it is neither of them. More of a "Go Fish" kind of game now.