Week 88 of my SplinterDiary📝📚, Pizza 2🍕 Brawl Report⚔️🛡️ & SplinterNews 📰 — "The Death of all BOTS? ❌🤖"

Hello to any of my readers and "Dear (weekly) Diary" 😜

July really started out really strong for the overall crypto market, but as we approach the end of the month, it seems everything has generally trended downwards again. There have been a few outsized gains like XRP (after their win against the SEC) but the BTC and ETH are ended up flat so far. It seemed like the news from the recent triple combo of the FED, BOJ and ECB wasn't quite that good for a risky asset like crypto after all. 😭

On the Splinterlands dev side of the game, a major change has been implemented that affects how a lot of people (or should we say bots) "play" the game. With effect from a few days ago, ALL BOTS have been officially BANNED from the Modern League format! 😜

But before I go into detail...

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A brief introduction before I start though...

Good Day to all Splinterlands players! (and people of HIVE! 😜) I've made it a point to blog about my weekly progress and experiences in Splinterlands/HIVE in my "weekly diary". Splinterlands & HIVE are what I'd consider to be my entry point into the World of Crypto, and I intend to use this as a means to look back on the path I've taken in the years ahead.⏳⏳⏳

This is now the 88th consecutive week writing in my Diary (of sorts) detailing my Splinterlands Journey ever since I started this game. I talk about what has gone on my personal Splinterlands playing experience, my weekly Guild Brawl Reports, and also any Splinterlands ingame news. 🎉🥳🎊

No week goes by in Splinterlands without some news event happening though. And here's my pick of some of the most interesting ones in my opinion. 📰📰📰

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🗺️🧳✈️Updates on my Splinterlands Journey🗺️🧳✈️

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I had already anticipated the impending ban on all bots in Modern. With that in mind, I'd decided since the beginning of this week to move my accounts into the Modern format. With WILD presumably about to be flooded with all the existing bots in the game, the amount of SPS earned per win was sure to drop drastically.

It was quite a chore grinding my way up to Silver League 1 from absolutely zero but fortunately, I managed to make it just before the changes kicked in. And not a moment too soon. Had I waited, I'm sure the grind to climb up the leagues would have been much more competitive. Phew! 😅

That said, with Modern turning into an all human league, it is definitely harder to play now. I've always found human players to be quite a bit tougher than the average bot out there. The SPS per win does make up for the increase in losses though.

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My quest for more Gold Foil Legendary cards from my rewards chests continues on ("Greed is Good!" 😈). It's a 0.008% chance, at base level, to pull a legendary gold foil, in case you were wondering 😉. Here's to more jackpot strikes in the future (i hope) 🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀.

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I have not managed to get any new Nightmare packs to replace all those I've sold. I will wait patiently to get them at the price I want. 🤑

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⚔️🛡️Weekly Guild Brawls Report⚔️🛡️

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With the end of the week comes my latest Splinterlands Guild Brawl Report for "PIZZA 2 The Deep Dish" too. 🍕⚔️🛡️

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There isn't anything of note to speak of in my Gladius Case openings, so I'll leave it at that. Hopefully something better will pop up after I accumulate enough for another one.

🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀 Fingers crossed for a Gold Foil (Legendary!!!) I hope 🤣🤑 for my future Gladius packs. (or any packs/rewards chest for that matter 😉)

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My main regularly picks up the ✨🏅✨Gold Foil Chaos Legion Only Fray no.12✨🏅✨ while my alt takes up the ✨🏅✨Wild Novice League Fray no. 2✨🏅✨ every week.

Both my accounts managed to replicate last week's perfect winning streak yet again this week! My main and alt both coincidentally achieved a 3-0 winning score. As always, I attribute lots of these successes down to pure luck. I'm sure I've just avoided losses because of the lack of serious competition. 🤣

PIZZA 2 Guild managed to finish in 1st place! 🏆🏆🏆

Talk about close though! We barely edged past the second placed guild just by virtue of having lost less games than them. Both of us registered the same number of wins. Even third placed guild was just 1 win away from the 1st place! It really does show how important every match is and we shouldn't take any wins for granted.

Great Job from everyone who took part in the Guild Brawls! I'm proud of you all! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

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On a sidenote, we've still got some unfilled frays too so...

BTW, PIZZA 2 is recruiting 😜 and looking for active players who can commit to attending every single guild brawl. Do hop into the PIZZA DISCORD if anyone is interested (or knows someone who is).

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🏆💰🎁Splinterlands News🏆💰🎁

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The release notes after the maintenance in the middle of this past week is probably one of the largest changes to Splinterlands stance on bots. Ever since I joined Splinterlands more than a year ago, it had always been said that the team encouraged bots and there were no repercussions for botting. So much so that it almost seemed that a few major bot services were even part of the Splinterlands unofficial partners.

A large number of players have always voiced their concerns about the negative aspects of botting in games. This is especially since many major AAA game companies have made great efforts investing in anti botting measures in their games with bans being met out to botters too. Generally, it has been a given that bots are an unfair advantage which also extract value from the ecosystem.

Well, after what seems like forever, it does seem that Splinterlands has finally acknowledged the idea that bots are detrimental. It might be too late already given the damage to the economy of the game ever since the extended bear market ravaged the entire landscape. However, it's better to be late than never and I do think this is the correct step forward. Hopefully it'll mean human players who invest in the game will gradually repopulate the game.

Regardless if you're pro or anti bot, the Splinterlands team does want to hear feedback from it's playerbase. There's a survey form which I encourage everyone with an opinion to fill out. The more of us fill it out, the better picture the SPL team can get of what the players really want.

Here's the link if you're interested. https://forms.gle/SmEcTe1NTfVzG9fj6

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Weekly Riftwatchers Sales Tracker

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Well, CHAOS LEGION IS ALL SOLD OUT! So the next most logical thing to track next are the sales of Riftwatchers.

1,037,899 packs have been sold (as of the writing of my post) out of a total supply of 3 million. There's still almost 500k to the next count of 1.5 million packs sold before we get the next Legendary Riftwatchers Airdrop card. 🚀📈🤑

🤑💰🍕Added Bonus of PIZZA Token🤑💰🍕

_{I will use my staked 🍕PIZZA🍕 to share a slice of 🍕PIZZA🍕 with anyone in the comments who also FOLLOWS & REBLOGS my post in the interests of spreading the Word of Pizza 🤣🤣🤣
Just let me know if you've done that so I can easily keep track. 👍
Any fellow 🍕PIZZA🍕 connoisseurs who !PIZZA me will also receive 🍕PIZZA🍕 back from me. 😊}

📣🍕SHOUTOUT to HivePizza📣🍕

_{The guys over at PIZZA DISCORD have been very helpful throughout my Splinterlands journey. I strongly recommend that you guys check it out if you haven't already done so.
PIZZA is an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain. Popular games on HIVE like SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR, EXODE, HASHKINGS, WOO, BANG!DEFENSE have their own PIZZA communities here.}

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_{Don't miss out more events that are always being organised. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. Even if you aren't interested in the 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁, there is a vibrant and friendly community there awaiting you.}

_{Here's to wishing everyone all the best for the upcoming week 🎉🍀.}

_{To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK😊.}