After talking myself up the other day about how awesome I am at Splinterlands and that for the first time ever I made it into Champions League 3 -

I got cocky

Well, not exactly cocky, but I thought that I would give it a tumble and see if I could make it into C2 - Champion 2 is far more valuable than Champion 3, not because of the DEC that can be earned (my Capture Rate sucks), but because the ending League determines the next season's starting point. While getting into Champions guarantees starting in Diamond, what it doesn't guarantee is a first round win - which means with even a tiny loss, you will suddenly find yourself back in Gold 1 without all those beautifully buffed cards. But, getting into Champion 2 means starting from Diamond 2, giving a whole league tier of wiggle room if falling down into Diamond 3.

This is obviously relevant for all leagues though, so if for example you have a gold-level deck, having to play silver sucks as the card abilities get trimmed and if used to playing up a league, it can be a challenge, plus, you have to struggle through all of the other players who might be quite adept at playing Silver level.

So - guess what.

A few days ago I rolled the DICE (my cards are predominantly DICE cards) in an attempt to climb up into C2 and after getting about 3/4 of the way there, I soon found myself knocked back to D1. Damn. No worries, I will have a rest and pick it up the next night.

So, last night, rested and fresh, I dived back in and an hour later... I found myself half way down Diamond 2!!

Faaaaaaaaaaaack.

I gots smashed. Should have quit while I was ahead. But, I don't want to bloody well start in Gold 2, so I went back in tonight to discover that - nearly all of my rented cards had been cancelled so now I would have to pay the EOS prices, with some not even available in MAX format. Determined to get back into D1,

Rent, I did.

But, it was tough going early on and I was struggling in a bit of a loop but one thing happened that regardless of where I finished, I could treasure. While only recently have I really been paying much attention, as I haven't had to meet them in battle earlier, there are some players who are considered good, and there are some players who are considered exceptional.

Link to Round

Sorry @jacekw

And thanks to the magic of the blockchain, it will forever be remembered that this season, Taraz batted well above his average (just like with my wife) and took a large scalp for the second time this week as the extreme underdog. The points were low on this as Jacekw has just started playing this season (it ends in less than two days) and is slicing through the field - but still, I was happy with the win.

And fifty minutes later....

I am done.

So while I was going to only get 18 championship points before, after 3 days, 150 rounds and about 5000 DEC for rentals later, I will now get.... 24 points.

Totally worth it.

_{Note: Percentagewise and even though it is almost valueless, that is a 33% gain. Score!!!}

I am not going to tempt fate and keep playing, so will now hang up my Battle gloves and retire Champion until next season, from where I will start from Diamond again. However, next season everything changes again, because the CHAOS LEGION General Sale goes live on the 17th, which is less than 4 days from now.

This means that there are going to be a lot more players coming into the game with far higher level decks than they had earlier. This includes me, as I am hoping to max (or come close) a CL deck by buying another 2000+400 packs to go onto my current 1500. This is a massive investment for me but,

You only live once, right?

And if after my death I am up at the pearly gates and they won't let me in because of all the NFTs I bought, I will still have my Splinterlands assets that should be able to buy me through the doors of hell with little trouble. I tend to play the role of Devil's Advocate often enough so;

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven

Also, these packs will count toward all future airdropped cards, of which three have already been dropped. After buying more packs last night to round up to a factor of 300 to get the drops, I got the bare minimum 5 of each and no golds for my 1500 packs so far, but, everyone else I have talked to got extras. My "pack luck" is incredibly bad and I feel like I am being punished.

If I am hell-bound, I may as well get used to the punishment.

So, after being pretty much back to where I was a few days ago, a little financially lighter and down several hours, I guess I have learned my lesson and will play a little safer....

Who am I kidding - No I won't.

See you next season.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]