Hello Fellow Splintermates, PraetOrian and Hiveans,

Todays community engagement challenge is about reflecting about our splinterlands journey. 2021 when axie infinity is in its peak but joining in that time is too late so i tried 2-3 games before stumbling into splinterlands. Once i tried playing it i found it fun and enjoyable and to make it short here i am after 3.5 years i am still playing it.

LOOKING BACK AT MY PROFILE

Looking back at my profile it says i started battling since September 2021, a few months and it will be my 4th year anniversary in splinterlands, time flies so fast. My modern and wild highest rank was rank 12 and rabk 11, i remember that is a gold leaderboard during 2022 when playing splinterland to me is competitive where you don want to loss. That owned power 1, 769, 089 was a dream before where SPS airdrop include that in computation but now for me is about owning a competitive deck unless you are using those in land as workers.

And yes that "The Mystic Title " was a dream before specially battling with those titles in their name . This was a reward for me in participating the conclave arcana presale after expending 1,648,000 DEC and merits.

MY BIGGEST HURDLE IN PLAYING SPLINTERLANDS

1. MONEY - this is the game where the more cards you have the more options you have and the more strategy you can deploy and to counter attack enemy's strategy. So buying full set of cards every set release was an advantage. As they say there is more reward in maxing your cards which is true. So playing attack without counterattack decks don't work in competitive matches. Although you can ranked up until competitiveness make you stagnant the good thing is their is a seasonn reset every 15 days.
2. POSITIONING AND STRATEGY - as a newbie who just jump to play splinterland i had a difficulty at first on this, wondering why my other monster is attacking while some of my monster are not attacking only to found out after asking other players about my ignorance and observing that order of attack is melee, magic then ranged. . Melee attack can only attack when it is infront, or it has a reach ability or it has the new charge ability where it can attack at any position or during a ruleset where it allows to attack at any position. Magic attack got the most advantage as it can attack at any position. Ranged attack monster has the most advantage as it can not attack infront unless it has a closed ranged ability or has an archon who provide closed ranged ability or rulest that allow all ranged monseter can attack infront. But don't worry if your are a newbie this can be learn in the CAMPAIGN MODE which it is a interactive PvE game mode.

WHAT FEAUTRE OR MECHANIC THAT TAKE LONG FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND:

1. RULESET - every now and then a new ruleset is being introduce and you need to understand how it works otherwise you may think you have the right strategy to found out you are in the wrong ruleset. My first strategy that i mostly use is the sneak strategy as that time i mostly used water magic and life sneak ( melee attack) . At first i got difficulty or interchanging sneak, opportunity and snipe . Watching my opponents arrangements make me understand. That time where there is no campaign mode so you either learn in youtube, ask your brother or sister or other players or watch the top battles .
2. HOW LAND WORKS - even after playing splintelands for almost 3.5 years. I admit that i just started my splinteland journey just last month where i bought my first land. Land is complex and take a lot of reading and question and answers to be able to execute . To be able to activate one plot you need to watch videos, read blog and ask questions to those who did it only then you can clear one hurdle at a time.

WHAT ADVICE I CAN GIVE TO MY PAST SELF OR TO NEW PLAYER.

1. If you are new player do the campaign mode that helps a lot in your first 100 battles.
2. Join guild and communities that are dedicated to splinterland- your guildmates can assist on some question you encounter in your journey.
3. Buy atleast one plot and activate it- that will prepare you to understand how land works
4. If you want to be competitive - watch tap battles to have the idea and learn some strategies of the top leaderboards.
5. Join splinterland discord and follow top holders and players in their social media that will update you on any miss announcement or updates.

Are there any specific players, guides, or moments that helped you grow the most?

As a player i learn a lot on @ueyuey because he is one of the best in silver league at that time . Their is an interview between the 3 of them @ueyuey, @schnapoon and one other guy who play in gold league before @hellslash. Where Ueyuey mention that in one strategy he has almost around 40 different positioning in excel spreadsheet if i still remember it correctly. As a land newbie @azircon hive blogs dedicated to land got a lot of data, @thejedo also have hive blogs on land guidelines. If you watch youtube @gatheringthemagic1984 has talks about land.

In short if you are newbie at some point like me the fastest way to learn it is follow ar learn from those who did it. In other words those who have the highest stake SPS and owned the most land already know what they are doing. So if your are lucky to follow one of them and lucky enough that they are sharing their thought and strategy then you are in the right path.

THOUGHTS

The splinterland journey is long and road is not an easy at some point when bear market hit hard or life gets difficult it is quite difficult when the mix emotion of having joy playing and watching your asset value decrease. But staying here for so long give you confidence and motivation to HODL and keep going. When luck strike and the one we had been waitng for finally arrived i think it will be more fun and rewarding.

....HAVE A NICE DAY .....

..... VONAK .....

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