Genre: Strategy, Turn-based strategy (TBS), Indie, Card & Board Game
Infinity Wars: Animated Trading Card Game
Sunday Tournaments - New Info (Qualifying, Prizes, Format)
Additional details are now available, explaining how these recent Sunday Swiss tournaments - the last two weeks, and one more this Sunday - will determine qualification of a competitor for the final top-16 event on the 25th of September. Please note that this is the first time we've tested this exact setup, so if any rulings seem unfavorable we can adjust them for the month of October.
How To Qualify
The first three Sundays in the month are Swiss events. You only need to enter one Swiss event to try and qualify for the fourth-Sunday top 16 monthly tournament. Once all three of these events have come to pass (in this case, September 18th), all players with all their score data will be added to a spreadsheet. We will then begin sorting everyone. Placement is explained below, in a short version as well as paragraph form:
Series Record
Second-best score (if a player attended two or more events in the series)
Points Difference (based on total # of individual games won and lost)
Special note: For each person who does not show up, the next-highhest ranked player will be slotted in. If you're rank ~17-25 or so, be prepared if you can attend on the 25th, just in case.
Placement will be according to series record, above all else. This means that anyone with a 4-0 record will advance automatically, and several players who have a 3-1 record. If we get to position 16 and multiple people tie the series record for 16th place, anyone who attends a second event will receive priority. If two or more players attended a second event, we'll go by their performance in that second event. If neither player has attended two events we go to Points Difference; which shows their relative performance by individual game. For reference, I set up our spreadsheet and did a sample top-16 based on the last two events. Slot 2 was left empty in case we do not get a repeat 4-0 player (Adorabear or Tenaccarli).
Seeding
We will use the tried-and-true seeding format whereby, for example, the top two players will be at opposite ends of the ladder bracket. In short, this is designed so that the tournament brackets are not so one-sided later in the event. The full format is best described with the sample image below, showing the winners' bracket layout.
Base on the above images, some examples of first-round matchups would find Adorabear vs Citridon, AccessDeny vs Ninjardo, and Toon310 vs InvertedEye. Please keep in mind that the third Swiss event this Sunday will be factored in. If you're low on the top-16 or not in there entirely, it would be best to try and qualify with high placement this Sunday if you are pursuing the Elimination event on the 25th.
Event Format - Monthly Finale
The event format we will use for this month is Double Elimination. Everyone starts with "two lives," and on your first series loss you will be sent to the losers' bracket, where you get one last chance to survive. The longer you last in the winners' bracket, the easier the tournament will be if/when you eventually drop to the losers' bracket.
To compensate for the fact that a loser's bracket typically lasts longer, we will do like in the past where some of the rounds are a best-of-1. Largenuggets and I have agreed to make the last, and second-to-last round a best-of-3 for the losers' bracket. The entire winners' bracket will be best-of-three however, and we'll observe the "Two Lives" rule for the grand finals. This means the following: If the losers' bracket finalist defeats the winners' bracket finalist in the grand final series, they will have to do so again. This is because the winners' bracket finalist will have only lost their first life, like everyone else in the event. If this happens there will be a second best-of-three to determine the final outcome, and decks may be changed for this second series.
Prizes
These are the prizes for September's monthly event. It's simple and pretty flexible in that it's largely about LP. You could use it for a large supply of rift tokens, penta-packs, some cosmetics, or a mixture. Delicious.
1st: LP x 25,000...with Infinity-border Legendary x1, Epic x2, Rare x3, Uncommon x4, Common x5
2nd: LP x 10,000..with Infinity-border Epic x1, Rare x2, Uncommon x3, Common x4
3rd: LP x 5,000.....with Infinity-border Rare x2, Uncommon x3, Common x4
4th: LP x 2,000.....with Infinity-border Uncommon x3, Common x4
5/6: LP x 1,500.....with Infinity-border Uncommon x2, Common x3
7/8: LP x 1,000.....with Infinity-border Common x3
Weekly Post #24: Tournament League Play, And General Improvements
Hey guys! I have some news regarding the future of tournament play in IW, but first I have an announcement to make.
So far we have had good success bringing in Largenuggets and Hacker as Community Moderators. They've been a big help overall, and we're ready to add one more player at this time. Please join me in welcoming ES to the team of Community Moderators! ES is known for his high-level PVP of course, providing some solid insights on strategic play as well as understanding the metagame. It is also fitting to note for this particular post, that he wins a lot of our tournaments. We're proud to have his assistance as we move forward.
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Tournaments have the potential to be a sort of "lifeblood" for certain game genres that have a large PVP following. They can be very competitive or casual friendly, depending on the models used. A tournament can be a very important end-game option for PVP-oriented players, too.
The short version of this update is to say that tournaments for Infinity Wars are receiving a general overhaul in how they are maintained and scheduled. Prize rewards will be increased from what they have been previously. We're also getting close to the point where we can test a new tournament -hosting platform, one that is far less bug-prone than In addition, the format and rules will be refined to be more competitive. Starting with some trial events I've been planning alongside our awesome Community Mod Largenuggets, we are teaming up to bring you the beginning of league play in tournaments.
Scheduling for September
We're testing out a few different formats and styles for the month. On Saturdays, we will be testing different formats and point scoring systems with exhibition events, and simulating how they scale over the course of a few weeks. On the outside they will be pretty usual to what you've come to expect for a Saturday event, except with richer prizes. Beyond that, the weekend events this month will be part of a benchmark for a finalized season/league format beginning in October.
Sundays will revolve around a format proposed by Largenuggets in a month-long rotation cycle. The initial plan is to run three Swiss tournaments as a "qualifier," three Sundays in a row, and on the fourth Sunday have a final "invitational" of the top 16 players based on those three qualifying events; the finishing event will be an Elimination. Players who enter one of these qualifying events will not be obligated to show up in any of the other Sunday events, however we hope to attract players who are interested in scoring high enough to return for the monthly finale. It will include largely boosted prizes from the qualifiers, and be pushed as one of our most prestigious events in recent history. If all goes well, we can push this as a recurring monthly format for competition in Infinity Wars.
Will tournaments still happen on weekdays, and what about variety events?
Weekday events are being considered as an alternative test for league play, otherwise there will be less weekday events that would be exhibitions. Variety events will continue but we prefer to focus on standardizing competitive play before branching out again. We're looking for player-run events to sponsor as well, and free up Thursdays and Fridays to see what players come up with.
A good example would be Benionin's Iron-Willed Chef Tournament that was held in July.
Prize Adjustments
Basically rewards are getting boosted across the board. This Saturday we're giving away a few more IB cards for the top-placing competitors along with LP, packs and Rift tokens. The leading downside to generalized rewards is that they don't equally benefit players who do/don't have a full collection of cards, or players who do/don't care for premium-borders.
I will be speaking with our Community Mods to discuss ways to balance this out, such as offering "lean" options where if you prefer package B, for example, that package has more Rift Tokens and less Penta-Packs. This way, players who need a fix for rift runs can compete to skip the IP grind, while other players that are just short on cards can opt for a prize package focused on Penta-Packs. Or maybe even getting an LP-focused package so you can choose what you want, but with a slight value penalty for having "the skeleton key" of choice. The operative idea here is to make sure that prizes are actually worth something. It's not enough that they're "bigger." While creating a standard is important, the prize needs to be useful to specific individuals with varying preferences.
Giving rewards to streamers will now be a standard, and we're experimenting with some new methods. This Saturday, players who stream for as long as they are in the tournament will not only receive two Penta-Packs and two Rift Tokens. Should they place in the top 8, the player's LP reward will be increased by 25%. More will be done in this area going forward, as we really value our streaming players who promote the game in doing so.
Casting, Commentary & Hosting
Anyone who has seen a tournament cast of mine knows that, while I try to do a good job, a few realities are in play. A. I'm not the best caster in the world, and B. we should have a variety anyways.
New hosts are being sought out. Largenuggets and I won't be enough in case one of us becomes ill or otherwise tied up in the real world. We're looking for extra hosts who can assist at our usual event timings on the weekend. The objective here is to provide a variety of personalities to the audience, while giving these new volunteers some extra tournament experience without having to design the rules, or worry about handing out prizes. In bringing this mutual benefit, I'll see what I can do about giving rewards to players that help host events on a one-off basis. For anyone who comes to enjoy performing this role, it would be great to have such players on the host rotation semi-regularly with further benefit - perhaps some kind of recurring thank you in rift tokens, LP or something else.
Co-casting / Co-hosting is also paramount. As part of my interest in player spotlighting, I'd like to invite players to join me or another given host in a skype call and provide commentary for tournament matches being casted. This is an inclusive effort, and while all hosts of official events will be required to have some solid knowledge of card plays and the metagame, the guest can be anyone from a seasoned veteran to a newer player who is just getting started. They'll be joining in the cast commentary for matches, and will be spotlighted a bit while waiting for a new match to be available for casting. Send me a message if you'd like to participate in this capacity! I'll also be sending out invitations over time to several players.
Sponsoring Player Events
It's in our interest to assist players in organizing tournaments. Whether you just want to try it once or more, whether you're already experienced or not: we can sponsor a few events each week at this time. What does that mean, exactly, to be sponsored? Yodomare will provide a small amount of prizes to help boost the attractiveness of your tournament, so that you are not stuck draining your collection of high-value cards. In addition, if you stream your event Twitch we can use the Host function they provide, to get your event some additional viewers, as well as social media advertising.
If you have an interest in getting some sponsored prizes or advertisement for your event, please contact me, DrewUniverse to discuss. Let me know if you're pretty well set and just need some prize support, or if you're new and inexperienced.
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If you made it through the entire post, thank you for reading! Let's build a great tournament experience together~
Hey folks, here is a list of the prizes that will be handed out on Monday for the leaderboard reset (mentioned in the latest weekly post - click here). It's been rolled around between IW staff as well as some of our seasoned players. We're going with this distribution for the first reset this Monday, and we're going to do a trial mini-season from September 5th thru September 30th. Depending on feedback this table may very well change, but it is not guaranteed.
**Note: All Infinity-Border cards awarded to players will be soul-bound (locked to your account)
Weekly Post #23: Ranked Reset, IP Boost, Match Queues & More~
Hey folks. I’d like to lead off this update with a few major, systemic topics. Last month we ran a month-long IP boost event where IP gained was doubled in Ranked and Normal game modes. We extended that event a few extra days to line up with the most recent patch. We believe that the grind was a bit too hard before that. Therefore, we are keeping half of that boost active. The IP gained per match will now be increasing by 50% for the foreseeable future. This is active now - please enjoy the increased card acquisition!
Ranked Leaderboard
As mentioned in previous announcements, it has been planned to work toward making the Ranked leaderboard reset on a more frequent basis. To start with, we will reset the boards on Monday, September 5th. The duration of this first trial “season” will be one month. The current plan is to reset on the last day each month, GMT/IWT, but it is possible that this may change in the future. Prizes will be given based on position in the leaderboard, and these items will show up at the inventory screen. I still need confirmation on the first wave of prizes, I'll post them when I know more. Do know that we are making one change with this reset for now: Draws will not be subtracting or adding any points.
Long-term we will be settled on a particular frequency - it is likely to be monthly. In the meantime we are going to monitor how the current points system in Ranked mode operates when it is built up and reset after only a month, before we consider adjusting the system further. Insofar we have had to look at the system from a standpoint of the leaderboard being active for far too many months, and we need to see it operate on a shorter timeline to make the right calls going forward.
Match Queue Times and Connection Issues
We’ve observed a lot of commentary on these two aspects recently. Despite putting a fix in for Draft matchmaking, for example, that mode is still giving some players a very long waiting period. These are cases where we have confirmed that multiple players were available, and the queue should be picking up players within ~5 minutes. Instead some players are experiencing 30-minute queues. As an aside, please keep in mind that matches are between two players in a peer-to-peer connection style. If one or both users have a poor internet connection - be it due to packet loss, an intermittent wi-fi signal and so on - there is not much we can do about the status of the ISP being used, routers and so on.
One reason we’ve determined is that IW might be getting hindered by a peer-blocking element of certain antivirus programs. Disabling this feature or at least whitelisting Infinity Wars has proven to remove the long queue times for some players, but not all. Several players have also reported connection issues when it comes to logging into IW, too. As a result, we’re looking at upgrading our server tech to try and help with both of these things. I don’t have a date for you, and when I know more I’ll provide an update on this front.
Campaign News
The next campaign is now closer to a feasible deployment. No date at this time, however I bring more good news with this: An additional faction campaign has been confirmed to follow behind this next one we are working on! That’s two more factions that will definitely be getting a 5-6 mission campaign to start with, including a free deck upon completion of all missions. Woohoo!
Rebellion Card Previews
More card previews? Sure! Two more cards were revealed at the tournament stream on Sunday, and I’ll share them here.
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First, we have the Lost Knight. Previously with the Flame Dawn,
he now aligns with the Exiles. That arm..
Next, this is the Truth Seeper of Solace.
Definitely some mind's-eye stuff going on here.
Weekly Post #22: New Patch, New Moderators, Card Art & More!
The Latest Patch is here!
First off, we should mention the latest patch release! Version 2.1.1 introduces Wave 2 of the Rebellion set, 14 cards for a total of 22. There are also a large number of changes to draft picks, the addition of Simplified Chinese as a language option, and some bug fixes too. ****Click here to learn more about that.
New Community Moderators
Mods! I love mods. I use them in Skyrim, and Minecraft… oh, oops! Just kidding. I’m proud to introduce two players who have been with the community for a long time, as Community Moderators (or “Mods” for short). These two individuals are known as Hacker, and LargeNuggets ( who prefers his name typed in lowercase).
This role is voluntary, and we are starting with the above-mentioned players to help us begin renewed moderation efforts. As a baseline, Community Mods will help watch over the community and relay extra player reports and comments through myself and our staff team abroad. They’ll be hanging out in global chat with blue text when they type messages, being as helpful as they have been already with new players learning about Infinity Wars and how the game is played. They may also assist with things like the oversight of the Card Design Challenge, tournament hosting, and other stuff. In the future we may accept more players to this position. A sincere thank-you to LargeNuggets and Hacker!
DLC Sale Coming Up!
The Steam DLC for Martyr’s Bounty, Treasures of the Calamity and Wealthy Noble’s Lockbox are going on sale again! The discount will be at 50% of the regular price, lasting for two weeks. The sale will start today, August 23rd at 5pm IWT/GMT/UTC. The sale is expected to end on Tuesday, September 6th.
We have more news on the way in the next weekly update. For now, I leave you with some more card artwork from Rebellion’s third wave.
Do you like large, angry monsters? Of course you do.
The person on the end of that swinging chain must be pulling so much G-force that they could qualify to be an astronaut. I hope they have a jetpack….
And here’s one more, an Overseer, looking out over the land. What’s the story here?
Hey guys! I'll summarize the notes for this update. For starters, Rebellion Wave 2 is now released in new preview penta-packs for your consumption - if accessing these cards early on is your thing! The new penta-pack contains a guaranteed Wave 1 slot and Wave 2 slot, in addition to a guaranteed rare in general.
Next up, Draft adjustments. Several cards had their rarity tweaked between common and uncommon for better draft selections, such as Plaguebearer and Gift Of The Passing moving to Uncommon rarity. Other cards were added or removed from draft, with a few key commander bans such as Hehkeem, The Corrupted and Evolving Parasite. And while this is mainly a draft-focused adjustment Tech Knight has received a modest buff. When it is chosen as a fallback pick, it will be less bittersweet.
The IW team made sure we covered some key bugs, including the icky interaction between Engine of Reincarnation and characters with Unstoppable. On top of that and a few other miscellaneous things, We have removed the incomplete Russian translation until it can be completed, and Simplified Chinese has been added in! That's our summary, for details you can read below~
Patch Details:
Wave 2 of Rebellion has been released! 14 new cards enter the mix in Draft, Normal play, and private games between players. They will become ranked legal in about a week or two.
Rite of Rage now reads: “The first time target Character would take non-combat damage this turn, prevent that damage and it gains +5/+5 instead.”
Tech Knight is now a 7/8, up from a 6/7. This change is intended to make the card less of a “feel-bad” pick in draft.
Forerunner of the Champions is now two purity, since all Champions the card works with are two purity and it was cluttering up single purity Overseers draft picks.
Rita, Mistress of Shadow will no longer be able to redirect damage to cards she created but have since been transformed into new cards.
Engine of Reincarnation now waits until the end of the turn to raise and transform its cards. This fixes an interaction with Unstoppable characters. Previously, a card raised by Engine of Reincarnation would not be considered dead for the purposes of Unstoppable characters, since the card never left play.
Purify can now only target cards in the opponent’s graveyard. Combined with some new mechanics in Rebellion, Purify leads to degenerate combos when used on yourself. Additionally, having the game come up with popup boxes to ask which player you want to target when 99% of the time it’s obviously the opponent is a design we try to avoid in modern cards, so we’re happy to update Purify in this way. We’re aware that at very high levels of play there are certainly cases where using Purify on yourself is the correct course of action, and losing that flexibility is a bit unfortunate, but to make the overall balance and gameplay experience of the game better, we’ve changed Purify to only target the opponent.
Academy text has been optimized to remain visible for longer.
Tranquil Swarmer’s description has been changed to reflect the card’s intended ability. Tranquil Swarmer’s previous description did not include the card's ability to give other insectoids Vigilance.
Removal of Russian text interface.
Addition of Simplified Chinese text interface.
Updated PvE map interface to include faction-specific icons above each mission
Several cards have been modified from the draft pool in our continuous efforts to balance it:
Hehkeem, The Corrupted is no longer offered as a commander.
Evolving Parasite is no longer offered as a commander.
Zombie Scavenger has been moved from Common to Uncommon.
Plaguebearer has been moved from Common to Uncommon.
Infected Pack Leader has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Drag Down has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Gift of the Passing has been moved from Common to Uncommon.
Denial of Flight is no longer offered in draft.
Weaponize is no longer offered in draft.
Give Him a Jetpack! has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Zom-b-Gone has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Flame Dawn Commando has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Dive is no longer offered in draft.
Denial of Advancement is no longer offered in draft.
Angelic Veil is no longer offered in draft.
Tempus, Champion of Patience has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Heaven’s Assistance has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Denial of Surprise is no longer offered in draft.
Reflective Shield is no longer offered in draft.
Rubble Golem has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Summoner of the Deep has been moved from Common to Uncommon.
Demoralize has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Battlefield Scavenger has been moved from Common to Uncommon.
Vengeful Warrior is no longer offered in draft.
Honorable Farewell is no longer offered in draft.
Prayer of the Dragon is no longer offered in draft.
Suppress is no longer offered in draft.
Find Your Way is no longer offered in draft.
Lingbao’s Will has been moved from Uncommon to Common.
Radariah is no longer offered in draft.
Wealthy Noble is no longer offered as a commander in draft.
Field Engineer is no longer offered in draft.
Gather Thoughts is now offered in draft.
Recycle is now offered in draft.
Bug Fixes
Completed quests not showing completed quest icon and not providing proper rewards.
Game crashes related to killing Cyber Infested Dragon and Endless Horde.
Upon completing Flame Dawn 5 & Warpath 5 campaign, game crashes and completion does not register.
I'm adding this section a few minutes after creating the post, to note some changes that were made to Rebellion Wave 2 cards:
The effect of Defiant Footman will increase from +1/0 to +2/0, and the effect of Defiant Monk will increase from +0/1 to +0/2.
Morningstar Accelerator will be buffed from 14/10 to 16/10.
Server Maintenance: Patch 2.1.1
Hey guys, we're taking down the game server a little early for today's scheduled 2.1.1 patch deployment. Multiplayer and trade services were acting up in the last few hours, so we're going to look at that as well. Here's a Steam thread for reference as well.
Weekly Update #21: Game Updates, Test Events, Art Previews!
Hey people! Today I'm covering game updates and some test server events.
Events on the Test Server, or PBE] (Public Beta Environment)
It’s time for another round of testing! First, we’ll be doing some general bug and balance testing with Wave 2 cards this coming Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Player incentive will continue, giving you a choice between LP, Penta-Packs or rift tokens as compensation - this may be changed in the future. There's a lot of text to write, so I'm placing that in a separate thread - link is provided below.
For a little while now, we have provided four faction campaigns to play. Now, I can say that there is an additional faction campaign coming, which should be 5-6 missions long for now. That number may change but it is likely. For remaining factions that will still be missing: It’s our hope that we can get them all implemented. However, there is still a lot of work to do. With that said, I heard many pleas from players about missing faction starter decks. If possible, we’ll work an alternate solution to bring in such decks while the campaigns for those factions are not in-game.
We’d like to do more with the lore as well, and I may get an opportunity to showcase this with one of our upcoming feature additions. Which feature is it? Well, I might tell you in a week or two, but for now let’s just say it’s a previous feature that we are bringing back! Hmmm..
A few quick but important mentions:
If you were drafting last week and received incorrect Rift Run rewards during the few days that our system was bugged out, please view this thread to appeal for a card of your choosing (at the appropriate rarity).
Infinity Wars social media will now be more active. Our team will work in various ways to engage the community via Facebook to start with, and we will expand from there. Once we have more things in place I will provide additional details in a more dedicated announcement. We may post social media updates including contests, or even early art showcases. Recently we provided a new portrait of Aleta, as well as some intriguing concept art! Click here to view our Facebook page.
We are extending the huge 100% IP boost event until August 23rd. That's an additional three days to reap the benefits of extra IP for each match played.
Card Art Preview
Before I conclude this posting, let’s look at some new art for Infinity Wars.
This is art for a Rebellion Wave 3 card.
Hey Aleta. Long time no see. What are you up to?...
Concept art from one of our artists!
Patch 2.1.0 - Hotfix "D"
A new update has been deployed to the live server of Infinity Wars.
Changed some behind-the-scenes values for draft matchmaking so that high-MMR players and/or players with a high current run wouldn’t face absurdly long queue times.
Fixed a bug where Ixxi wouldn’t automatically play himself from the Command Zone.
Fixed a bug that caused gold borders to not show up properly when drafting.
Updated the icons in the campaign menu to be unique per faction.
Fixed a bug where players were able to see what the opponent drew using the Battle Log.
Fixed a bug where instructional text during Academy Missions would disappear too quickly.
Fixed a broken link to Facebook in the main menu
More bug-fixes are on the way!
Weekly Post #20 is here
Hey guys, I've got Weekly Post #20 here for you, covering several key topics with important updates. The updates include Ranked, Draft Balancing, Translating the game into other languages, Rebellion Wave 2 card reveals, and a lot more! Click here to read the full write-up!
