Legend League Tournaments

== From the Dev's Desk: Legend League Tournaments ==

Hello fellow Clashers!

Big changes are coming to the multiplayer leaderboard scene! There are new Leagues, a new Tournament and crazy sounding things like Legend Trophies and, can it be true? Trophy resets? What’s going on?



The new Legend League Tournament!

It’s true. In the coming update we will be introducing the Legend League at 5000 Trophies and a new, monthly Legend League Tournament in the Top Players list. In this League:
 * Your current global rank is featured on your League Badge in your Profile


 * Your final global rank and Trophies will be permanently saved to your Profile when the Tournament ends


 * The Top Player tab will feature last season’s Legend League Tournament winners


 * Trophies above 5000 will be reset down to 5000 when the Tournament ends, and deducted trophies will be converted into Legend Trophies


 * Legend trophies will be permanently featured in your Profile and cannot be lost

Phew! Those are a lot of changes, but we are sure that all Clashers will soon share our excitement. Are you interested in the Legend League but think it seems too hard to get to (5000 Trophies?!?!), or wonder how Trophy resets might change the competitive Clash scene? Please, read on! We're going to dive deep into the world of competitive Clash and go through all the details about the Legend League Tournament. Along the way, we'll discuss how we aim to improve the fairness of Clash competitive play, improve high-level matchmaking and open up a true, competitive Clash experience to more players than ever before.

And It all starts with a little trip down memory lane.

  '''A Look at Leagues Past '''

A bit over 2 years ago, when we were developing Leagues in Clash, we were intensely following the Trophies counts of all players. Check out this groovy-colored graph, which we dug out of our vast e-mail archives:



In 2013, the situation looked very different from today:


 * The most competitive Trophy range was around 3000 Trophies


 * Less than 150 players in the entire world had over 3100 Trophies


 * NOBODY had over 3200 Trophies - that’s right, not a single person

In 2013, we placed Master League to contain only the most explosively competitive players in the game. Champion League was placed where no player had yet been before, 3200 Trophies, and was the highest symbol of competitive prestige possible.

However, this situation was not to last. We’ve seen the top players push all boundaries we thought possible, through 3200 Trophies when Leagues went live, past 4000 Trophies less than a year later, and, now, into a suspenseful race to be the first to 5000 Trophies. The Champion League, once beyond all reach, is now home to tens of thousands of players. We haven’t changed the League ladder in all this time, so it begs the question:

Who are the new Champions?

Nowadays, reaching 3200 Trophies and becoming a Champion is a great accomplishment, but it is far from the ultimate symbol of prestige it was in 2013. There is a vast competitive spectrum beyond 3200 Trophies that is going completely unrepresented. Again, we’ve been intensely watching how many Trophies players have, and the situation feels somewhat familiar.




 * The most competitive Trophy range is around 4700 Trophies


 * Less than 150 players in the entire world have over 4800 Trophies


 * NOBODY has over 5000 Trophies

We've placed the new Titan League to again contain only the most explosively competitive players in the game. Just like we did for Champion League in 2013, we are placing Legend League to where no player has been: 5000 Trophies. Also, Just like Champion League felt in 2013, the new Legend League will, at first, feel immensely difficult and ultra-exclusive.

It will be an incredible achievement for the first players who pass 5000 Trophies and become Legends, and it won't end here. Without a doubt, more and more players will push into Legend and beyond.



So, this leaves us with a question. Where will we go next? Up and up to ever higher Trophies? Is this a journey with no end? In the Clash Team, we've been thinking long and hard about how we can make being a competitive Clasher more meaningful than a forever increasing Trophy count. At the same time, we see a golden opportunity to improve our high-level matchmaking and improve the competitive experience for everyone.

Improving the Competitive Clash Experience



The competitive Clash experience can be way better. For years, we've been talking with and taking feedback from our most competitive Clashers, and there have been clear issues that we been long trying to improve:


 * Very long matchmaking search times “in the Clouds”


 * Repeatedly lopsided Trophy offers (+1 Trophy win / -39 Trophy loss?)


 * Low mobility in the Trophy ladder and feeling "stuck" where you are

We’ve already taken countless small measures to try to address these issues over the years, but there has always been one simple, unchanging problem: there are not enough players at the top. When there are too few players, matchmaking suffers, Trophy offers get worse, and pushing trophies becomes more and more difficult. The best solution has always been to try to get as many players as we can into the most competitive Trophy range, but finding a fair way to accomplish this has been a massive challenge.

The new Legend League Tournament is our biggest and boldest step to try to finally address these problems for good. Over time, these Tournaments will be pushing more and more competitive players together, but how does that actually work?

Trophy Resetting: Making a Competitive Sweet Spot

Clash is a game that is meant to be played alongside a huge amount of other players. Everything from the matchmaking to the Shield and Trophy systems depend on it. The best Clash experiences happen when players are not too distant from one another and the battles come frequently.

As discussed above, this currently isn't the case for our most competitive players, so one of the most an important elements of the Legend League Tournament aims to address this: Trophy resets.



At the end of every Legend League Tournament season, everyone's final standings will be recorded, featured throughout the game, and Legend League players who are above 5000 Trophies will be reset back down to 5000 Trophies. Yes, every month, all Legends get a fresh start and another chance to push for global rank #1,

Our goal here is to nail down a competitive "sweet spot" in the Legend League for our most competitive players. Over time, more and more Clashers will join Legend to compete and this spot will only become sweeter. High-level matchmaking response times will improve, Trophy offers will recover and, eventually, there will be enough mobility in the Trophy ladder to make it possible for anyone who is a serious contender to push to the top.

But the Trophy resets are far from the end of the story. We’ve left one of the most exciting bits for last:

Where Do the Trophies Go?

Trophies have come to mean far more than just skill in Clash. They also measure prestige - how hard and how long someone has been pushing their Trophies. We fully intend to keep and even enhance prestige-building season after season with the addition of Legend Trophies. Legend Trophies permanently preserve the extra Trophies that get reset to 5000 at the end of each Legend League Tournament season. As an example, if you end the Legend League Tournament with 5100 Trophies, you will gain 100 Legend Trophies when your Trophies get reset to 5000 at the end of the season.



Legend Trophies will accumulate season after season and nothing will ever reset or reduce Legend Trophies - not a string of bad battles, not forgetting your shield just ran out - not even taking a break from the leaderboards for a season. Legend Trophies are visible to everyone else, and we currently looking for even more ways to feature this number competitively around the game.



Additionally, your best ever League Legend Tournament result will be permanently stored in your profile. The highest rank with the highest Trophies you’ve ever achieved will be featured as a symbol of prestige for all to see. Your performance in the last League Legend Tournament will also be featured along with your Legend Trophies. Finally, the top League Legend Tournament players will be featured on the global Top Players list for the entire next season after that Tournament ends.

The Future of Competitive Clashing

In the Clash Team, we feel that this is only the first step in growing the potential and improving the experience of high-level competition in Clash of Clans. We will continue to find ways to provide more excitement and activity to each competitive season, and get more players involved to make the experience as fun as possible. We are incredibly excited to see how the competitive scene evolves over the next few months and look forward to seeing more and more Legends join the competition!

Until next time, fellow Clashers, Clash on!

The Clash Dev Team