A semi-organized list of my thoughts on the past, present and future of KARDS esports and my suggestion to rework the OCC qualification method to solve many issues plaguing the competitive scene. Please give feedback in the comments or on the KARDS discord.
00:00 History of KARDS Esports
5:40 Problems with KARDS Esports
16:02 Solutions
21:20 Officer Club League
42:18 Please Give Feedback!
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Great video! Sure nails the larger problems with Kards in general. I have put forward a solution to the tournaments but nothing has come of it.
I would like to see national championships, where the top X players in every nation is entered into tournament qualifiers. This would broaden the range of players massively.
Thank you for your OPEN letter, I loved hearing your ideas about KARDS Esports ! Indeed the biggest thing that has to happen is bring back the KARDS OPEN once every other month. You can drop the OCC prizepool from $1500 to $1000 and add a $1000 KARDS OPEN every other month. This is a no-brainer, it has to happen. Top 16 in the OPEN should be best-of-5. In the past, only top 4 was best-of-5.
I believe the current OCC qualification method is the best it has ever been with 6 spots determined by swiss rounds rather than ladder finish. The current OCC qualifier is a mini Officer Club League with a full relegation system where top 34 ladder finish is required every month to participate. While a full OCL would be better, it seems like a huge step that I'm not too confident to see be made.
For the first month of the OCL, it would be good to split the open qualifier into two open qualifiers, each for half of the league, in case some people are busy on a certain date.
I really hope the developers watch this entire video. I am unmotivated to even play. it would be nice to have players to watch and rout for.
@jking7 et al. I want to chime in from a very specific point of view on this, because I am both passionate about the game, and also by necessity and habit, an advocate. So forgive the length.
From the point of view of someone who is, I would hope, and those of you who've seen me play or played me/talked to me can make that determination of value, a pretty decent player in the early stages of a so far fairly successful journey. But also someone with life restricting illnesses, lets short form it to this for brevity, I suffer from episodes of full body paralysis every day, and thus have to manage and meter my time and health. The idea of a more accessible structure is hugely appealing.
In the current format, I am unlikely to have the time to ladder enough to qualify, though I have made top 60's. But much more importantly with the rigid times and format, even if I was able to become as good as I think I perhaps could be, I would be unable to actually compete, I have actually spoken about this on a stream at least once.
So I would implore folks to give some time and consideration to these proposed changes, as they would be a huge move towards accessibility, which if you are 1939 would also have the advantage of being a massively positive move for the community and perhaps open up some more talented players to the E-Sports aspect of the game.
Thanks for reading, and I always try to get to responses and questions as soon as I am able.
Cheers,
Bear
Just another idea… it would be nice if 1939 would subsidize community events. If they offered minor money and in game rewards to people who ran tournaments, I think you'd see way more community run events. I would certainly run one if I didn't have to put up the prize money myself.
One would think research would be done by 1939 to gain an understanding on having this type of e-sport tournaments. I'd imagine that the Magic card game ran into the same type of problems. Is 1939 not looking at other similar tournaments for examples of success? Everything you mention JKing seems workable, or at least the start of the discussion for change.
Give this man a job at 1939.
Please!
Excellent ideas! I hope that 1939 break their unique "wall of silence" Customer Relations – LMAO – Policy and explain the reasoning behind their current approach to Kards e-sports, their thoughts on the ideas you've presented so well and what, if any, changes they will be making.
Dear JKing,
Thank you for this open letter. It is very helpful and articulate. You address valid points in regards for top level players, and I’m glad you had done so.
I have been playing for a couple of years and bounce about at the lower FM level, really just playing for fun and just using it for a pick up and play 20 min game etc.
For the majority of players there are greater issues going on.
1. My biggest issue with 1939 games is that of communication. We can start with their ‘Frontline’ podcast which was last seen in Sept 2023…what happened to it? What has happened to Elin who seemed like she was supposed to be the link between 1939 and players? There is no 1939 presence in the tournaments at all….just players or former players commenting( which is great, but would be a good opportunity for them to be asking someone like Elin what is happening with various issues).
2. Is it pay to win? I’m lucky enough now to have pretty much every card to be able to play any deck, but I feel for new players. There are so many cards and the crates are manipulated in such a way that without buying things like battle passes etc new players won’t reach tiers….the diamonds etc etc…..whilst we appreciate the company has to make money, it also could probably make more money if it can retain new players who probably give up after a month seeing how little cards they are able to craft without spending lots of money. I would love to see the figures of inactive players….
3 Tournaments- we love seeing the top players playing in tournaments. Your abilities to craft decks, adapt to card changes and play moves in the heat of the battle is a joy for us average players. However, ongoing there needs to be new tournaments at all levels….a weekly ‘captain’ cup….a weekly ‘general’ cup etc….a knockout cup perhaps open to everyone at that level and playing against similar level. With the prize being something like a unique card back and some diamonds or packs. It would cost 1939 games little and do so much for lower level player engagement.
4. Play testing- are you ever asked for perhaps you and Berto to do some play testing of new cards? It may sort many issues re having to buff and nerf cards if they actually had top players playing with them for a week before release. People are buying cards and building decks only to have them nerfed a month after release.
5. Use the championships in Iceland to have a filmed conversation with the KARDS co designers Ivar and Guomundur as an ongoing basis to ask the questions that have to be asked. It comes down to the same issue….communication and 1939 games perceived lack of attention to it.
1939 games- RESPECT YOUR LOYAL PLAYERS!
Never partocipated in kards esports myself but that does sound like some BS.
I stopped playing cause ago too powerful couldn't' even have fun everything too swingy need less power crreep
I spent a ton of money and then stopped cause way to imbalanced
It would be nice if they had some kind of in game tournaments for in game rewards. It would be easier to enter and it would help out newer players with growing there collection and give tournament type experience
I agree with you, Jking. The ladder is completely devoid of fun for very little pay (literally) in the OCC. The classification system should change. And as it stands today, the Officers' Club is useless. Why not do something more inclusive so that players who come to FM can take some advantage of it? Your ideas were good and very democratic, congratulations.
Opinion of a regular 4 month old player.
I'm actually in favour of expanding tournaments. I don't know about you, but the modes in the game are a bit lacking in my personal opinion.
The amount of hours spent on grind is horrifying – it's probably a good thing that I didn't get above Lieutenant General with my deck. It is possible (yes even true) that such a condition undercuts the meta of the game – after all, most meta decks are Aggro.
I hope to be heard – ccg is a rare enough genre, and it's easier to drown here than anywhere else.
As someone with a 2019 WC cardback, this video is everything we've been screaming about. People simply do not have the time to invest into laddering, the Kards Open tournaments were singlehandedly keeping the competitive scene alive. Now that they're gone it's nearly impossible for the vast amount of players to ever see a cent from competitive play.
Hello Jking7,
I've been around for awhile started shortly before Kards Open IX, participated in that tournament and then the 2023 WC. I'm not top-tier but when I play, I think I could consistently be 50-100 in ladder. That's me.
I defer all to you, as far as Esports is concerned, I know very little; however, I worry about your League because I'm thinking that it will pull the best players out of Ladder- and the best players are the ones I honestly want to compete against. As obvious, these are the people you want to play and you want to learn from them… Many times I play, I'm humbled against these top-tier players; still, these are the opponents I look forward to. So long as removing these players from ladder doesn't sour my experience…. That's my concern.
Sincerely,
wastecan