Last week, Gods Unchained released an update to the reward structure for their weekly weekend tournaments.
You can read the official blog post about it here - https://blog.godsunchained.com/2020/05/14/weekend-ranked-constructed-may-2020-update/
Overview
Previously, your reward for participation in the Ranked Weekend Event was tied directly to volume of wins during the event, with bigger prizes for reaching higher ranks. The prize structure capped out at 100 wins, which seems like an unhealthy amount of playtime, but nonetheless, several players managed to accomplish it every week.
But now things have changed! Your reward for participation in the tournament is based solely on your record for the first 25 games (though additional games can count if you somehow manage to actually win the first 25 you play). Quality of play becomes more important -- quantity, less so.
On the surface this looks great! As a semi-casual player with two kids who has little free time (or energy) on the weekends and can only eek out 20 or so wins by sacrificing a few hours of sleep, having a more focused, limited goal that doesn't involve heavy grinding works much better.
I also think that this change will encourage more deck variety (depending on the current meta). The previous reward system heavily rewarded, quick, aggro decks for players trying to accumulate wins. Players wanted to get in as many matches as possible and so you would often see more Slayer or Soul Burn decks on the weekend.
But now, with the focus moving to winning percentage, everyone will instead be bringing out their best decks (at least for those first 25 matches). If there is an overabundance of a certain type of deck, it won't be due to the tournament prize structure, but might instead reveal imbalances in the meta.
There have been some complaints from players who liked the rewards for absurd number of wins and Seeker has said that they will look into perhaps adding another level of rewards for those folks.
First Impressions
The past few weekends I participated minimally in the weekend events, sometimes not even earning any prize at all. With my limited time, if felt like a bit of a waste of effort trying to win a couple of rare packs that I could easily acquire anytime just by gaining levels in-game.
But I was inspired by the new rewards format and made sure to play my 25 matches this past weekend, though they ended up being spaced out over three nights.
Below are my results according to GU Decks. 16 wins of 25 for an overall winrate of 64%. Not too bad. Enough to win 3 Rares and 2 Epics. Two games off of the next higher prize rank. I could have done a little better, but I spent the first few games figuring out which deck I wanted to play with. Began the weekend in Solar Gold and finished in Ethereal Diamond. Shooting for Mythic next time around.
I encountered a few Slayer decks during my weekend runs, but I also saw Heaven's Light, Onslaught, Forage, Blood Ritual, Discovery, Blastwave, Soul Burn (which makes for a very quick mirror match), and even someone playing with the Chosen Visions power (they lost, of course)! This seems like an improvement over previous weekends where most folks were playing Slayer for quick wins, or a Light or Death Control deck, both of which can be exhausting to face.
Overall, I like the new system. I can't say that I have any complaints about it. Nearly 700 players received a prize this weekend, which is a marked increase from previous events.
As usual, it's nice to see that the team is not afraid to make changes to improve the game experience. I am looking forward to future weekend events, and in reaping the rewards from bringing my best game to the fray!