Introduction
As announced by Gwent: The Witcher Card Game devs, 2023 would be the last season of official esports competition. The Masters 5 cycle would consist of two tournaments: Midseason and Masters Finals.
After Masters 5 not only official esport finishes, but also Gwent moves into maintenance mode, with no new content released. This project got codenamed as ‘Gwentfinity’.
Then Masters 5 is the last chance to reach for the Gwent stars and try to achieve the impossible. While official tournament play is scuffed and also proven to be have significant random factor, let’s spice up the ladder competition!
Gwentfinity Stones & Prizes
- Passing 11k MMR mark => 5k PLN ( ~1100$ ) + bonus
- 60 LEI + front page (Top20) => 4k PLN ( ~900$ ) + bonus
- 2800+ fMMR on a single faction => 2k PLN ( ~450$ ) + bonus
Amounts written above are guaranteed by me, the ‘bonus’ part would come from voluntary crowdfunding – hopefully would be many times higher than base amount! We need it to make best players from rich countries join the contest and get justly rewarded. Read further for detailed information and rules.
Competition Format
The competition starts with January season of Masters 5. The format is a 50/50 mix of race and highscore conquest.
- Race – at the end of a competitive season if a player achieved Gwentfinity milestone, then they receive 1/2 of prize pool. If many players broke the same threshold, then only the best of them (respectively highest MMR/highest LEI/highest fMMR) receives 1/2 of the prize pool.
- Highscore – the player who broke the threshold and has highest score in a given category receives 1/2 of the prize pool at the end of Masters 5. Non-competititve seasons also counts.
In case of a tie in Highscores, the prize pool is divided accordingly. In case of a tie in the Race, the player with higher ladder position takes it all.
Once a player wins the Race, only the Highscore part remains active. One player could gain many Gwentfinity Stones with the same score. Race and Highscore prize pools are separate; if nobody won the Race, then Highscore winner still gets 1/2.
Validation
Gwentfinity Contest scores must be under no suspicion of wintrading etc. All scores would be thoroughly checked by CDPR for possible violation of fair-play rules.
Player approaching the 3rd Gwentfinity Stone – 2800 MMR threshold – is pleased to share profile picture with me before season ends.
Pump Up The Stake!
As I don’t know about really convenient ways to conduct this type of crowdfunding via internet platforms, we would rely on gentlemen agreement. Pick up one (or more) of Gwentfinity prizes and pump up the stake by declaring the chosen amount! Use any currency you like (as inflation is crazy these days in EU). The minimal contribution is equivalence of 50$ (or 200 PLN). The day somebody wins Race/Highscore, you would be solely responsible for the payout of your part. Similarily also non-money contribution could be declared on your own responsibility.
Contributions could be made up to Masters 5 finish. If none of players won race after last competitive season, all contributions made and prize pool gets divided by 2, so that each new fund would go directly to Highscore achievement.
The way to declare support publicly is via retweet/comment of the announcement Tweet. To do the same privately (anonymously), contact me on Discord or via Twitter dm.
I’d keep summing up all declared contributions on Gwentfinity Contest page. Public donators would be mentioned along with contribution, private donators would be refered to as Anonymous.
It is also possible to add own Gwentfinity Stone instead of contributing to three main, but in such case starting declaration of at least 300$ (or 1000 PLN) or equivalence is needed. Your prize would be displayed on Gwentfinity Contest page, and other people may start to contribute to it by declaring smaller amounts.
I’m open for questions and suggestions regarding crowdfunding.
Gwentfinity Stones Background
11.000 MMR
Alltime MMR highscore: 10.809 belongs to kams134 and was achieved in semi-competitive Dryad season of Masters 3, where a pack of players fought for Crown Points to take part in Gwent Masters Finals.
TLG_Cyberz (aka xXxD4rkK3v1nxXx / Spybie) had highest MMR score in full competitive season (Draconid Season of Masters 3, directly preceeding Dryad’s): 10.767 MMR.
To achieve 11k MMR, average score of 2750MMR is needed on all factions. Contrary to popular beliefs, reaching highest MMRs is a matter of skill rather than suprerior grind. After all MMR is an analogue of ELO system in chess. Grinding just saturates your score, so that skill level becomes visible.
Matched against average player on ladder, 11k MMR level pro is supposed to win 90% of games. Nevertheless, thanks to matchmaking system, the usual opponent would come from a narrow group of most successful ladder players. Getting the edge against them is the key to success.
Metagames are extremely important, adjusting deck choice to high ladder meta and then abusing advantage to the limit in long streaks before ladder adapts.
Current gap to 11k MMR is 200. So little at 9600 level, so much at 10.6k+. From optimistic point of view, the task is just to improve Kams net score on every faction by +10 wins ;-)
Out of all factional peaks in Masters 4, only Sindikkat ST score was good enough to help 11k MMR run.
60 LEI (+front page)
Alltime efficiency highscore belongs to TailBot: 59.1. Nobody ever come really close to this score, but also perhaps nobody hatched pure LEI. In fact TailBot achieved his score before even this efficiency meter got defined.
Best LEI scores are achieved when playing intensively, starting from two last weeks of the season. That’s due to MMR inflation. Runner-up Pajabol climb shown in the picture below is a model example.
Additionally, no games should be wasted on sub-Top4 factions. While 11k MMR milestone lets the player to waste some games, especially at lower MMRs, in 60 LEI challenge every result is extremely important since the start. It could be compared with flawless speedrun to Pro Ladder.
To achieve 60 LEI, player needs (roughly) average of 60 fLEI on each faction. An example of 60 fLEI score is 2550 fMMR in 25 placements games. Possible on one faction, extremely rare on two or more. Most LEI highscores so far were achieved in 300-400 games, but it is a bit biased by player’s motivation to achieve Top8 score with minimal workload.
Is getting as proficient as t1mMy with NR Priestess or Kerpeten with Self-wound possible for four factions in one season?
2800+ fMMR
Sindikkat’s 2759 MMR with Scoia’tael Handbuff is the factional highscore of Masters 4. No other player came close in the cycle, yet Sindikkat wasn’t even competing for Crown Points (Russian ban).
The alltime highscore: 2782 fMMR was achieved by Iluxa228 (aka BigKukuruzina35) with NR Uprising Witchers during Masters 2 offseason.
Reaching 2800 MMR requires outstanding, never seen before proficiency in the played deck/faction. Faction being ‘OP’ is not enough, as then a great deal of matchups becomes mirror. Secondary factor is strong mindset, as reaching 2800 would require hard grind. At final stage, 3 or more wins would make up for one lose – every fail would test the mental in a hard way.
Closure
Let the battle begin!
(Infinity gauntlet wallpaper used in the featured image could be found here – obviously not done by mine ;-))