When One Door Closes, Another Opens

This has been an amazing year of growth for Team Rankstar. We have had a lot of talented members join our team, growing the Rankstar community. Similarly, we have said farewell to several teammates, and they have moved on to greener pastures. One of the hardest things we had to effectively let go of this year was “The Elder Scrolls: Legends.”

Being one of the games we had a very strong presence in, the absence of it has been felt throughout the team as a whole. Last year, we had two members qualify (Endozoa and Plzdonhakme), with Plzdonhakme winning the “Masters Series Championship” becoming the first “World Champion” of TESLegends. Earlier this year, we were humbled to have been invited to take part in the “Masters Series Qualifiers.” It was a truly amazing experience that gave us an opportunity to learn a lot about tournament organizing and the esports scene as a whole. On top of that, one of our tenured members, Superthx555, made it to the semi finals. All in all, it was a really wonderful experience for Team Rankstar. With the announcements about future sets on the horizon, we were very excited for the future of TESLegends.

Unfortunately, business is business, and the game did not glean the success many of us had hoped. On December 6th, the community manager released this statement, effectively ending the development for TESLegends (they say “for the foreseeable future”, so there is still hope the game comes back). While the game had its ups and downs, it also had a team of really talented people working on it, and we are incredibly grateful for their efforts. We are very grateful for all of the opportunities it presented, and if ever it returns, we fully anticipate being a part of that return.

As the title mentions, “When one door closes, another opens”, so finding new games for the team to be involved in has been an enjoyable challenge. Two in particular stand out as games to keep your eye on for CCG fans of all kinds. 

“Mythgard” has showed a lot of promise, borrowing elements from Hearthstone, TESLegends and other CCG’s, while innovating in a variety of ways. Many TESLegends refugees have found a home among fellow Mythgardians, and Team Rankstar has been heavily involved in working to create a strong community for the game. It is still fairly small, and has some growing pains ahead of it, but I believe it will be a high skill cap, rewarding, competitive card game for new players and veterans to sink their teeth into. Also, being able to play via browser (during your lunch break at work) is an incredibly cool feature.

“TEPPEN” is another game that has piqued the curiosity of card game players worldwide, as it has a very unique approach to combat. You have three “lanes” and you are limited to playing your creature cards in these three spaces, while the creatures combat one another via a “combat meter” of sorts, while spells and “Hero Arts” (your avatar’s abilities) can be played at “instant speed”. Being such a unique take, it appeals heavily to some, and misses the mark for others. As it's being marketed as a “card based fighting game”, a lot of the appeal has been toward fighting game players, who are looking for something different to play. Being that you can only play it on a mobile device, it hasn’t picked up a lot of steam from the PC heavy CCG playerbase, but they released a really promising roadmap (which they have not yet published on their site, but it includes a ton of organized play and plenty of chances to win money) so I expect the game to grow tremendously in 2020. 

Eternal has a lot going on with its “World Championship” qualifiers, Gwent also released a long awaited (and very well received) road map to it’s competitive season 2, and Magic: the Gathering will continue making some people happy and having some people unreasonably enraged on Twitter, so there is a lot to look forward to in 2020!

Thanks for taking the time to join me for this reflection, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for the games we are involved in!