Steem Monsters Sunday!: Tournaments and An Economic Update

Excitement in the community continues to expand as the price of Steem impacts not only the ecosystem and its members but also the Dapps that are being created and growing. With an increase in price, the ecosystem as a whole starts to grow as more engagement is attracted due to the increase of the value of the Rewards Pool. It also has an impact to the projects, as for example, now Steem Monster packs although still having the same value in Fiat, take less Steem to purchase. However, it has been interesting to see that the value of the cards themselves has grown in correlation to the increase in Steem price.

The continued deployment of the tournament system has many users engaging with Steem Monsters as well. While I have not been able to play during the week other than completing my daily quest, I am participating in a handful of tournaments during the weekend and have seen that the amount of players engaging in them has increased since the tournament started. I feel more enjoyment playing the tournaments than the daily quest as it seems that more players are engaging with different levels of expertise which have given the battle system somewhat more diversity. I personally feel that I am more competitive when in a tournament knowing that each game can be my last. With the daily quest requirement not being a factor, I feel more strategic of the team that I build.

I have also seen that I have been quite successful playing the tournaments. This weekend alone I participated in four tournaments and got very good rewards for placing in two of them. For example, I got 15 Steem from placing second-place on a Friday tournament and got a Legendary Summoner from placing third place from a tournament on Saturday. Given the way the developers have setup the entry fees, these tournaments were free to join which made the return infinite. I want to again congratulate them for making this change after receiving feedback as it has certainly improved the engagement of the community.

All this is being accomplish while still struggling to get past the Gold Division this season. However, I am feeling more confident in my strategies as well as playing more time than usual to practice on diversity during tournaments. This will come well as they have announced that soon we will be getting a new type of currency or tokens based on Steem-Engine just for playing in battles every day. It is said to reflect a similar distribution than the Steem Rewards pool so that is something to look forward to. More rewards for engagement is the formula we all want to see!

This has led me to do something that I was quite hesitant to do before today. I finally used the @holger80 creation for @bookkeeping to see what my total investment in the game has been until now and the relative returns. However, have in mind that these results do not provide the full picture of my involvement in the game. As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am very jealous of spending my Steem for anything across the ecosystem as my main goal here is to accumulate until I become an Orca. Therefore, my main funding source for my cards has been through Fiat given the opportunity to do so. I have invested $2,257 for purchasing booster packs and the original starter pack when started last summer. In addition, I also invested $600 for my support of the Kickstarter campaign. That is definitely could have been a lot of Steem but I feel that with the upcoming card delegation program I will be able to start making it up. Lastly, the @bookkeeping does not consider the value of cards that I hold which with some minor exceptions I have held all since acquiring.

Putting it all together, it seems that I am about breaking even in my investment in @steemmonsters! This is exciting for a number of reasons. First, I enjoy playing most of the time as it is something different from my daily work and a different way to engage in the ecosystem. Also, this is despite the fact that Steem is down about 50% since I started to buy booster packs last Summer. While luck has a portion to do with it as I did open two Legendary Gold Foils, I think this demonstrates the potential that is being built here in the ecosystem. Some posts that I enjoy on a daily basis are from @naillon11 and @fullcoverbetting (references below) whom “keep score” and monitor the value they are achieving from their rewards every season. They are more active than me these days in the buying and selling of cards but demonstrate that @steemmonsters is a sustainable way to generate Steem Power over time. Considering that this will continue to be developed with the upcoming Card Delegations and Tokens, I think it will only be a matter of time that we get a new phase of new players involved-great time to add my referral link!

I have never looked forward to playing Steem Monsters more than now which is encouraging given my thoughts only two or three weeks ago. However, as the ecosystem in general becomes more positive about everything of all things to do, I think the future is bright. I am working hard to consider next steps to making my season ranking better which include more investment and studying. One great source I have found is @bittrio who posts some great content and provides some strategy in his gameplay. Less than a week left for the end of the season! Get those rewards!

References:
https://partiko.app/@niallon11/steemmonsters-rewards-1-7-march
https://partiko.app/@fullcoverbetting/steemmonsters-season-9-is-half-way

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