Albion Online is an MMORPG from Germany that recently shared positive news about player numbers. However, they have now announced the end of the Crystal League Championship. This comes as a surprise to everyone and meets with much incomprehension in the community.
What kind of league was it? In the Crystal League, teams of 5 or 20 players compete for victory in an arena. Both teams start with 150 points, and the team that first falls to 0 loses. Through the regular Crystal League, tournament points can be earned to qualify for the Championship.
This tournament is then accompanied by an official shoutcast, and players can earn rewards. Generally, special skins and in-game currency are at stake.
What was announced now? The last official championship will take place on September 16 and 17. After that, it’s over. The reasoning states that players can continue to duel in their own custom matches. Furthermore, the regular Crystal League will no longer award Season Points to shift the focus to major guild activities.
This statement particularly bothers fans of “Small Scale” PvP, meaning fights in small groups.
Players find no logical reason for this
How are the players reacting? They are mostly confused. The league was a place many players enjoyed using because typical arena PvP takes place there. With the elimination of Season Points and the cancellation of the Championship, the Crystal League loses much of its appeal.
Players also fail to understand why this happened at all:
- The league does not offer any prize money that could be saved.
- The livestream could have been canceled without needing to delete the entire event.
- Fans of arena PvP will not suddenly participate in larger battles in the game world, but rather withdraw from the MMORPG.
Player DaSoop writes in the forum: “If this change to the Crystal League comes, then the 5v5 fans lose their goals and interest in Albion. This means that 5v5 fans will not play Albion anymore.”
The feedback in the forum is overall very negative regarding the planned changes.
How is Albion doing otherwise? Actually, very well. Since the switch to Free2Play in 2019, the MMORPG has significantly increased player numbers. Previously, there were even fewer than 10,000 players online daily, the number jumped to over 120,000 in 2020. Since then, it has been continuously on the rise.
Currently, the game reportedly has 300,000 daily active players, which the developers revealed in August on Twitter. This makes it one of the largest MMORPGs ever.
Recently, Albion Online has also gained players thanks to releases for Android and iOS as well as new servers in the Asian region. It is even more curious that they are removing a popular tournament and not offering a replacement for this player group.
What are your thoughts on the changes to the Crystal League? And are you active in Albion Online or is there something bothering you about the MMORPG?
