Hello, fellow Snappers! Remember the Thunderbolt’s Developer Update, where Evil Hyper Competitive Ben Brode gave us a heads-up about Leagues, a new type of event coming to Marvel Snap? Well, it turns out they arrived on some servers in Europe for a test run, and I have all the juicy info about it to share with you. Will League be a lovely new addition to Snap, or should we be skeptical about Evil Brode’s event?
Just look at him; he seems trustworthy.
What Are Leagues?
Leagues are short-duration events that will group together the whole player base into groups of 30 players in a competition to see who is the best around. Many players were under the impression that Leagues would be a new game mode similar to Conquest. But in actuality, it doesn’t have a new matchmode. It uses every match in Ranked and Conquest to give or take points based on performance. Win cubes, and you’ll get points, lose, and your points will be taken away. The goal is to accumulate the most amount of points you can to get those high rank rewards. You might be wondering are the rewards are worth the hassle? I believe so, but you don’t have to trust me. Have a look:
Wow, getting the Champion’s Jackpot would be amazing, right? It is confirmed that players will be grouped with other players that play about as much as they do and as well as they do to keep Leagues fair and competitive. So, you’d better be ready for some fierce competition since everyone will be at a similar level.
The Deets
Alright, now that I got your attention with those rewards, let me give you the details about the event.
Second Dinner hasn't decided how frequent the event should be. It could be every other day, once a week, or every season. It all depends on player feedback, so give them a piece of your mind about whether you want the event to be up all the time or not. For now, the event lasts 48 hours, which is enough time for a ton of games. With everyone aiming to be number one, we must figure out how the points work before strategizing anything. Let’s break it down. Get your math notebooks; it might get a bit technical.
You’ll get 100 points for every win, and every cube you steal from your opponent is worth 25 extra points. That means a one-cube win is worth 125 points, while an eight-cube win is worth 300 points. On the other hand, for games we retreat or get defeated, we lose 25 points per cube and nothing else. That means that a one-cube retreat takes us back only 25 points, but an eight-cube loss is devastating, taking away 200 of our points. All the information above is for Ranked. On Conquest things change, only the winner gets the points and so far there is a winning limit of 350 points per win. So running Ranked ladder seems to be the best way to accumulate points because conquest takes too long.
To be conclusive about points, winning is more beneficial than losing is detrimental. If you play many games with a 50% win rate and no cube gain, you will get points at a slower pace. That is awesome because it might remove some of the players' competitive anxiety. I advise playing as many games as you can with a consistent deck. You want to win games more than you want cubes, so maybe snapping aggressively to make your opponent retreat might be a good strategy (I said maybe; don’t blame me if you lose, okay?).
There is another factor I haven’t brought up yet: Perks, Second Dinner's extra spicy addition that might skew the competition a fair bit. Players can pay gold to gain an advantage, get points more easily, or protect their points. Players have two perks that are optional but can give a huge advantage in Leagues. Let’s take a gander:
As the name suggests, both last 30 minutes, if you plan to buy these, you better spend those 30 minutes playing and playing to win. The Point Perk seems much stronger, yet it has a drawback: losses also get doubled. As I see it, these two Perks have been designed to work with each other. With the Point Shield protecting your points, you can play as a mad person with nothing to lose because you basically are. Also, the first use is on the house. If you don’t intend to spend gold trying to beat the league, better to make that freebie count.
The developers mentioned that Perks might change from League to League, so be sure to always check at the start of every League to see if anything is different. There could be more perks in the future, and some might be even more impactful than the two we got. Keep an eye out.
Sneaky Strats
I am trying to find ways to get the most points by abusing the system. I can think of two things that we could do to try and maximize our points. Firstly, we could, on purpose, not reach infinity rank to face bots when the League shows up. Maybe even lowering your rank before a league might be a valid strategy. Secondly, we could play as many matches of Proving Grounds since that’s the place most people go to test out decks that are not refined or competitive – getting 8 cubes by tryharding on Proving Grounds should be easier than on ranked (that is assuming that you and your opponent snap on turn 1).
Conclusion
I hope the League’s trial run goes smoothly so the global launch can happen soon. Although I don’t enjoy the perk system, I can see how people could have fun with it while they try to reach the highest scores. I’m excited about the launch and hope it becomes a staple event. I want to try it out, but unfortunately, I’m not in the chosen region for the test. If you are on an EU server, go to Second Dinner’s Discord Server to give your input. I’m sure they will appreciate the feedback.