Some players complain that there aren't sufficient incentives to max their cards and that there is a better ROI by keeping cards at lower levels.
Some players complain that the Splinterlands game economy is too top heavy and that the rewards are already too concentrated towards Diamond and Champion league.
Many of these issues have come to the forefront again with the latest SPS Proposal:
@sps.dao/sps-governance-proposal-split-ranked-battle-reward-pools-by-league
So this post is meant to do some analysis, as well as to provide some historical context for those who have not been following the changes over the years.
#1. It is true that in the original Alpha and Beta sets, the benefit to leveling up to max level was limited for some monsters who only got a single stat point.
Is it worth buying an extra 200 BCX (an additional 65.57% compared to the 305 BCX needed for Level 9) just to get +1 Speed?
#2. However, starting with the Untamed set (officially released November 30th, 2019), the cards were intentionally designed so that most monsters got a significantly powerful ability or stat increase at max level (instead of something minor like the +1 speed from the above Skeleton Assassin). As a result, a Level 10 monster was significantly better than a Level 9 version. This design principle has carried on even today, into Chaos Legion and Riftwatchers.
Those max level abilities turn a solid card into an amazing card!
#3. Another change that came with the Untamed set was a readjustment of the BCX required to level up cards, which largely benefited max level players and forced Bronze, Silver, and Gold league players to acquire a lot more cards. From Beta to Untamed (Chaos Legion uses the same BCX requirements as Untamed), the number of BCX to max Rare, Epic, and Legendary cards remained the same while the number of BCX cards to get Level 9 and Level 10 Commons actually decreased.
Meanwhile, for every Common level from 2 through 8 (including Bronze, Silver, and Gold league), the number of BCX required increased. For every Rare level from 2 through 7, the number of BCX required increased. For every Epic level from 2 through 5, the number of BCX required increased. And for Level 3 Legendaries (Gold league), the number of BCX required increased (it remained the same for Bronze and Silver league).
Thus max level players had a slight benefit (fewer cards needed to max their common cards) while Bronze, Silver, and Gold league players all had to acquire significantly more cards to level up.
#4. Originally, turn order in battle was determined by Speed and then Attack Type. Otherwise it would be random. So in a battle between a Level 9 Flesh Golem and a Level 10 Flesh Golem (both of who have 3 Speed), it would be random which monster would attack first.
On May 11th, 2020, there was a change to the attack order which added rarity and level as additional tie breakers:
@splinterlands/announcing-anytime-tournaments
So now the Level 10 Flesh Golem would always go before the Level 9 Flesh Golem under normal circumstances. Not only did max level monsters have a power boost (due to the design change starting with the Untamed set) but now there was a slight turn order advantage to leveling up your monsters.
#5. Early on, one benefit was that max level cards are worth an additional 5% if you burn them. That might have been occasionally useful for those who regularly burned cards but it wasn't so helpful to players who actually played and used those max level cards, at least until Collection Power was introduced.
Collection Power was announced in June 2020:
@splinterlands/splinterlands-league-updates
Phase 1 simply calculated Collection Power:
@splinterlands/splinterlands-updates-lzmlre-dice-and-more
while Phase 2, which required Collection Power thresholds for ranked leagues, was implemented in September 2020:
@splinterlands/new-reward-cards-and-collection-power-update
#6. In July 2021, the SPS airdrop started:
@splinterlands/splintershards-token-and-airdrop-launch-announcement
Airdrop points were based on a variety of factors, including collection power value (another use case for the 5% bonus for max level cards) and also Champion points (which also favored max level players).
#7. In October 2021, the Ranked rewards system was changed so that instead of being based on the SQUARE of your rating, it was now based on the CUBE of your rating:
@splinterlands/splinterlands-updates-october-2021
Max level (Diamond and Champion league) obviously benefited the most from this since they can more easily reach much higher ratings.
#8. And now we have the latest SPS Proposal:
@sps.dao/sps-governance-proposal-split-ranked-battle-reward-pools-by-league
While the numbers are not set in stone, it does allocate 25% to Diamond league and 30% to Champion league, so 55% overall is intended for max level.
It is understandable if Splinterlands wants to encourage players to level up their cards. It's just that people often forget all of the many incremental changes that have previously been adopted over the years.
Other advantages of max level cards:
You can play in lower leagues and lower league tournaments (though some lower league Splinterlands official tournaments have higher entry fees for higher league accounts).
In official Splinterlands tournaments, prizes/payouts are proportional to the collection power requirements. So higher league tournaments have much larger prizes.
At some points in time, there have been separate Diamond and Champion level tournaments, essentially allowing max level players to "double-dip" by having twice the number of available events. Right now, Splinterlands official tournaments only have a single category for max level tournaments (instead of two). Some sponsored tournament series (like the Brave tournaments back in March 2021) had separate Diamond and Champion events so that max level players had a tournament every week (one week Diamond, the next week Champion) while the Novice, Bronze, Silver, and Gold players only got one tournament every 2-3 weeks.
Many sponsored tournaments by third parties are disproportionately max level events.
As for the disadvantages for max level cards:
Investment cost is obviously the biggest hurdle. You need a lot more resources to be able to afford all of the BCX. For rarer cards, there may also be a limited supply on the market so it may get increasingly expensive with each additional copy that you buy.
When it comes to selling or renting your max level cards, there is a much smaller market since fewer people have the resources to be able to afford max level cards. As a result, it is harder to move the cards and it may take a longer time to sell them.
A lot of sellers and rental barons also find that they have to take a haircut (i.e. offer a discount) in order to sell or rent out their max level cards. As a result, the ROI per BCX is lower.
Renters have to carefully compare their costs versus their rewards to make sure they aren't losing money during a given season or for a given tournament. There is greater variability and risk for renters playing in higher leagues.
Did I miss anything? Feel free to post any additional advantages or disadvantages to max level cards!