Steem Monsters Sunday!: A New and Refreshing Start

The end of the latest season is behind us and I am glad of it. Whether it was the lack of players in battle due to other options within the Steem ecosystem (i.e. Drug Wars) or the fact that the skill curve has gotten too steep for me, last season was not very fun at all. I felt as if it was more of a duty to get my daily quest done than entertainment. For whatever reason I continue to be matched against players of much higher level than me despite barely crossing into the Diamond Division. It made me play against the same players over and over again with the same results. In fact, I fell below into gold division a number of times before ultimately settling barely into Diamond Division for the end of the season. At least I know that I am not the only one suffering from these issues as other players I follow are having the same experiences.

However, as I usually say, the rewards we get for fighting through the season at no cost are far better than anything else we can do in the ecosystem. Despite my disappointing efforts of barely achieving Diamond Division, it was enough to get 50 new Reward Edition cards. Ironically, this was probably the season where I have gotten more valuable cards than in the past; excluding when I was able to get my legendary Gold Foils in the past (although those were from purchased packs). Within the Daily Quests and the Rewards of the season I got two legendary cards. This alone made the effort and time put into the game worth it for the season and is the main reason why I continue to play the game.

The new season continues to be a little of the same as it gets harder and harder to rise in the ranks of the established Divisions. I still cannot fathom the reason for this but continue to play despite that as I know for a fact that the developers in the community continue to find ways to engage the player base and that will succeed in bringing more to the game. In fact, they have already started as the new automate tournament-based system has now launched. I had been busy during the week to try them out but got to try a couple over the weekend and admit that it has been quite entertaining and encouraging.

Screenshot from Steem Monsters Website

The beginning of the tournaments started with some conflict as most had entry fees for their participation. Although most were fairly small, many have thought that when the game and its many booster packs were sold; tournaments would be included given the amounts of money raised from the sale of these packs. After a couple of days, the developers eliminated the need for most entry fees and instead set their costs based on the Division players found theirselves in. For example, Gold Division players can enter any tournaments with gold level cards and below for no fee. I think this expanded the amount of players willing to play as most tournaments that I entered this weekend had well over 70 players at the least.

Screenshot from Steem Monsters Website

What is more exciting is that the developers have allowed for anybody to actually go in and create a tournament. Anyone can go in set rewards and even fees to attract players to participate in them. As you browse the tournament list, there are a number of third parties like communities and projects that are sponsoring tournaments with a varied number of entry fees as well as Rewards to participate. This is pretty exciting given the fact that possibility for these communities and projects to promote themselves through a platform where adoption has grown faster than other places in the ecosystem. This is a great scenario for both Steem Monsters and the ecosystem as it provides engagement interest in their relation.

With regards to the at actual mechanics of the battle and gameplaying, it was very seamless and very user-friendly to sign up and begin battles. While longer tournaments takes some time given the progression of the rest of the players, I felt it pretty well considered from the flow perspective. I played in a total of three tournaments this weekend. The total entry fees and investments were zero as all were tournaments either totally sponsored by third parties or free due to being in the Gold Division. However, my best placement in these tournaments was eighth place and I was able to achieve rewards for two of the three I participated in this weekend. That was a total of seven Steem in rewards which is not bad considering that my only investment at this moment was my time. I believe that this will start making others consider their returns on Steem Monsters to be positive once again.

Screenshot from Steem Monsters Website

The new tournament system has given me a new sense of encouragement for the game after the last two seasons of somewhat disappointing engagements with the community. Don’t get me wrong, it may not be a problem of the game itself but instead my lack of knowledge or strategy to progress further in the system where as others have potentially gotten past those barriers. However after playing the tournaments, I continue to look forward on how to evolve my cards in order to compete in both the seasons and now the tournaments even more.

Due to my competitive nature I would imagine that I will once again go down the rabbit hole to find ways to improve my knowledge and my collection in order to compete. As the new month comes in and my purchase of Steem draws closer I imagine that a portion of it may very well go back into some cards. I have not checked the market the last couple of days but have read that some cards have begun to increase in value once again. I do not believe that it is coincidence that this occurs when tournaments are deployed. The values of cards are something that I’m sure that the developers have well in their mind on how to sustain. They have also started discussing the future of the roadmap which sounds very interesting from a collectors perspective as card delegation is something at the top of my mind and interests. I look forward to what this new tournament system and even new seasons will bring for the game. See you on the Battlefield!