Yes, I made it! I really did get to Diamond III for the first time.
To be honest, I didn't really count on it. I never thought I would get this high, any time soon.
For me Gold was my major goal in Splinterlands. I am pretty confident playing in Gold League - except probably for the start of the season. Not so long ago, I was playing in Silver most of the time and was really happy, when I got to Gold III end of season, so I was not getting thrown back to Bronze. Bronze is terrible and I am really happy not to be there anymore. You cannot play your cards as you like to, it feels often, like it is up to luck and the major point: The rewards are terrible. To be honest, I am not even sure, if I would like to stay there if I had the chance to get to the leaderboard. 2,000 or even 6,000 DEC are hardly enough to be worth the pain. But I don't think that I will drop to Bronze if I continue to play.
I could see myself dropping to Silver, if I am not renting a lot in the beginning of the season. Especially higher level summoners. I did level up my General Sloan, but most of the time this is not enough. And my progress with Thaddius is not really fast. Let alone Keyla or Obsidian. And of course, if my delegations get withdrawn, I would also be kicked back to Silver. So thank you to 
My time in Diamond III was short. I made it before the End of Season Rewards, didn't play a single battle while I was there and got my rating reset to Gold III. To be honest, I felt like it was just a lot of luck that got me there. And I really didn't think it was worth it try to play there. Sure, the win that got me to Diamond 3 was 21 DEC - which is quite a lot. And the ones before where 14-16 DEC per win (Gold Foil cards can make a huge difference). But every loot chest in Diamond 3 was worth around 51.5 DEC at the time of writing and 48.5 in Gold I. This would mean that Gold I season rewards are worth 1455 DEC, while Diamond III rewards are 2060 DEC, making this a difference of 605 DEC or a 41% increase in expectable average rewards. That would be equivalent to over 30 wins with a win streak, gold bonus and a high ECR. Or maybe 40-50 wins (or more) without those bonuses. With my more or less average win rate of around 50% this would take me another 80-100 battles. That is almost a half a season of work. In Season 67 I had 221 wins and earned 1373 DEC for this. Since this is pre-scheduled, I am not sure, how much I won in Season 68 and how high my earnings and win rate is. It is slightly better than last season probably.
Would it be possible, that I could win some more battles? Maybe. But then? I wouldn't dare to believe that I could have made it into Diamond 2 - and so the risk-reward calculation was clear:
- Risk: Loosing Diamond III rating and falling back to Gold I, which would left me with 30 boxes with a value of 1455 DEC. Or even worse, if I didn't stop trying to get back to Diamond and made it back to Gold II.
- Reward: Winning maybe 100-150 DEC in the run. The chances for Diamond II have been really, really low.
But yeah, Diamond II would grow those rewards to 50 boxes, each being valued at almost 55 DEC, so in total 2750 DEC. But then, I would have also needed another 50k power, which I don't have. But 3,100 Rating? That seems still way off my possiblities. Also my deck is not fit for Diamond. It is hardly fit for Gold.
I am pretty happy with what I did achieve this season! Last season was amazing and probably my best. But it got just better. Like a lot better. Last season I was so happy about getting to Gold II. Now I climbed to more leagues to Diamond III. Wow! What a season!
EDIT: I have seen the rewards. The anticipation was a lot better, than the actual results.