Still not a big fan of the system.

It's not that I don't agree that there's an issue that needs solving. I'm also pretty convinced that the new system will fix most of the issues short term. But long term, it will (in my opinion) hurt Splinterlands growth badly.

What it tells new players is basically "give us more money if you want to progress!". While this statement is obviously true for most CCGs/TCGs, it has never been made so obvious in any game (that I am aware off). Just consider how much explanation has been/is still necessary for the active player base. Right now, we are mostly crypto people, we are used to investing and moving our money around. But mainstream gamers? They'd call it the worst Pay2Win they've ever seen, leave a negative review and move on.

Ultimately, we are creating a huge barrier of entry for the mainstream market with this and I doubt that any explanation in the world could convince the average gamer to even give it a fair shot with this system in place.

So I'm not saying drop the system, I'm not even saying change anything short term. Let's try it and see how it all works out. But once we want to make that push for the mainstream market, we will need a better/other solution than what we have now.