Becoming a Legend, it was not worth anything.... Leagues Review
welcome back everybody its your boi BlitzWizard94 back at it again to review one of chess.com's biggest and popular features known as leagues. this system is still in the beta system i believe as i cant seem to see it on profiles when i logout of the site itself but i am here to break down in general what it is and the goal of the system overall. Leagues is essentially this feature where everytime you play in the new chess.com playing server you gain points for "trophies" which are this useful tool that ranks you in the division you are given. there will be a leaderboard with other contestants in the same division and the more you win games in the play server, the more you win trophies and climb that leaderboard in your division. the gimmick is that it promotes the server but playing to the community with thousands of games and over millions of users being interactive for the opportunity of winning money or being in special events in the future.
the points depend on the format and some new rules were modified as to not abuse the system such as not counting hyper-bullet as that made it easy to stack up free trophies and i am pretty sure they toned down the points you earn in bullet as well but everything else stands. you win 3 in bullet, 5 in blitz and 15 in rapid while in arenas they gift you a additional point. the rankings there categories are follows as in order: wood, stone, bronze, silver, crystal, champion and the golden ranking "legends" which is the one that many people especially titled players aim for in the end. now why is legends the ultimate milestone here? its pretty simple, once your at legends ranking, the fun only starts and chess.com will make special arenas full of cash prizes which is what fuels everyone to win and win all their way till they finally get legends and the money.
the qualifications for each ranking is also super interesting, the top 20 enter wood, stone 15, bronze 10, silver 5, elite 3, and champion to above will be the #1 spot. now that i have pretty much broken down the basics and it sounds really cool and everything, how can this possibly be any bad? well the system is kinda flawed and even though it promotes the idea of interacting users from around the community to keep playing that's also what causes the big problems.
it is a good idea to promote people to play on the site but its also bad as this system has shown many users are really addicted and lose over hundreds of rating points with massive losing streaks and bad games all for the purpose of reaching the qualifying spot. this can become a big problem as it can make legit fair chess players look like sandbaggers that even the system wont allow at times to join arenas if their rating falls too severely. some users might even get a warning message from chess.com itself claiming that the staff team will be observing and monitoring them. i know a dear friend and enthusiastic chess player known as @lightning has come to just hate the system due to the constant problems involving that aspect and that it really has no benefit. once you have pretty much beaten everything there is left, the legends section is pretty much a ghost-town where masters are almost guaranteed to win money all the time in the only thing there which is of course the special arenas where only top get the prize.
additionally all there is left is pretty much the legends club reserved for the highest ranking league members known as legends. only the people with that ranking may enter the club and it is a very cool idea giving this place to be the home of all the people who make it there which i frankly enjoy but besides that again there is not much to offer in compensation. once we reach the end there really is only one more thing to strike for and that itself is just what chess.com decides to do further on but as of right now there is practically only the special arenas they do.
from my experiences leagues is just a painful and extremely agonizing way of enjoying and loving chess to its core. i am in no way trying to say the system should be removed but somethings should be looked at a bit more precisely as well while there can be some negative side affects it can also be a very fun experience. i have been playing in the first time ever again back in arenas and have had such a huge blast reliving why i love playing bullet arenas so much alongside blitz which is just incredible. i can go from losing multiple games to winning numerous bad games or simply play a fun one which makes me laugh or feel happy in general.
this game was an example where i beat a FM down a rook but just by flagging him and this took place during todays arenas where again i was rushing back and forth hoping to pass 2,0000 league points and overcome anyone in my path to become a legend. the opponent i was worried the most about in my quest was @DeepBlueVtwo as he was super persistent playing so much chess in so little time gaining lots of points with rapid and was always at times either slightly behind or above me in the leaderboard. he was a very hard opponent to beat but when push comes to shove, if you are crazy then whatever kills you only makes you way stronger.
My Final Opinion and Review of the System, Leagues
i pretty much say the system while it may have some bad things and is excruciatingly painful for those who lay at night playing hundreds, even thousands of games each day only to lose by one point in the end... the system itself isn't entirely that bad. the major problem with the system is that it encourages lots of players to be addicted and lose really badly, over massive rating loss and really just bad chess days which can make them appear like sandbaggers by the site. i find the idea of the rankings very unique and interesting for the least but again for what its worth i really hated grinding and playing so much games to get over 2,000 and its not worth it if there's no fun in the end but as long as you have pretty much achieved your goal or don't care, its a good experience with lots of things to be admired in the end. i know there is so much reason to hate it and i think that regardless even though i am pretty angry, i will be nice and give it a 10/10 cause in the end it is a very fun system and it mostly just affects players who get addicted.
if anyone also has made it to legend and wants to be in the official chess.com club then join here down below with this https://www.chess.com/club/chess-com-legends-club
that's all from me today folks, again stay awesome and sorry if this blog seems really short there wasn't too much to cover except the main points and yeah hope you enjoys the review, cya ggs
