It looks like the founders have taken notice as the next big 1000 Steem game has 16 places paid. To their credit they do take into consideration the suggestions of the players.

Hmmm, interesting experiment you got going on. When I did mine months back I used a starter pack and nothing else. No upgrading cards at all, Silver league was easily attainable with just the starter set cards. With buying/selling cards I suspect a person could reach gold 1 with some luck and an abundance of time due to the fact that I face some level one teams when I am in Gold 1.

There are some key differences in our experiments and I look forward to following the progress and seeing the outcome.