For a number of months already, I have been not in favor of points deductions for players ranking 3rd and below. This is motivating as a racer especially knowing that MoonKarts is generally a pay-to-earn game. You need to spend $$ to get into a good level of equipment and an astonishing $$ to increase your stake of Colony tokens in the platform.
Like I've said, it's going to be really difficult for players to compete in the current status as the cards are currently scarce, as players choose to stake their cards and generate fuels. This is exactly why the market right now only has a few cards. This is because mainly the users choose to keep their cards and stake to get fuels - then sell those fuels at a rate of 4:1 (4 fuels for 1 Colony), this is economically balancing for those users who are not keen on playing but would like to profit.
So right now, the current update gives incentives to all players even at the lowest ranks. I think that it's going to be big once the mobile version comes out. Right now, the only challenge is this - how do you get the community involved?
Well, the short answer for that is very simple --> Get more packs available for them to purchase and be able to market it. The second sale or something like that. Introduce a new card better than the current Arachno eclipse and have it being added.
For me, the game is still very much has a potential to make it big. I hope the team can solve this issue as the game is currently really doing very well!