HR DERBY OVERHAUL

I'll start my suggestions for change with a fact: You (GLU) have killed the HR Derby.

Here are the reasons why, followed by the suggestions for change, and finally, the reasons you should care.

Why:
(1) With a new, better slugger each week, only those players who successfully win the new slugger can compete in the derby. The derby (yes, even the lower levels) have become saturated with sluggers of 120, 119, 116 levels. Given the disparity between these event-won sluggers, and the best slugger you can win from a draft pick (108), players who do not/cannot win the event, cannot legitimately compete in the derby. This is not a question of skill. A perfect round with 98 Harper will lose 100% of the time to a reasonably good round from anyone from 110 Cano or above.
(2) If one cannot reasonably compete in derby, logic says they will not try. There are obvious exceptions, but the more these exceptions play, the faster they will become irrelevant.
(3) The cost in gold to "refresh" a slugger is too low. The idea of having a roster of sluggers that only refresh after a loss is a good one. However, at the 1000 gold levels and above, spending 100 gold to refresh one's best slugger is an obvious cost in order to reasonably compete. Everyone knows this, and mostly practices this. Therefore, each week, guess who you match up against on 95%+ of derby matchups? This week...Steve Garvey is the winner! Seriously, out of let's say 100 matchups since Tuesday, probably 90+ were against Garvey.

Suggestions:
(1a) STOP releasing a new, higher-ranked slugger each week
(1b) If not 1a, try releasing different sluggers that are ranked the same as the previous weeks, or even sluggers ranked below the previous weeks. At least this will create some variety for what has become a very stale feature of the game. For example, I prefer right handed sluggers. Others prefer left-handed. Why not have a left-handed 120 slugger as well, so people don't see the same guy every single matchup.
(2) Increase the amount of gold required to refresh the sluggers, making it proportional to the gold risked. For example, at the 500 level, perhaps 100 gold to refresh a 120 slugger is reasonable. At the 1000 gold level, double that. at the 5000 gold level, the gold needed to refresh should be 1000. This will force people who want to make gold fast to reconsider the cost of refresh against the potential winnings, and will further increase a bit of variety in matchups. It will also allow the people who are actually very good at derby to work down their roster and still compete.
(3) Offer some lesser sluggers during the Derby Events so that people who do not pass level 8 may still get a prize (you actually did this last week!!! I was so proud). Getting gold draft picks as prizes is silly. One, as mentioned before, the best slugger in the gold draft is a 98 slugger. While nice, the odds are terrible, and it doesn't really help one compete in derby any better, nor does it help anyone be more successful in the event itself. Maybe even offer some of the older event prizes for passing level 7 (i.e. cano, bryant, ortiz, etc, etc).
(4) Eliminate the first few rounds of the derby event. C'mon, it's just a waste of everyone's time when you can beat a guy by hitting two home runs. Major boresville.

Reasons you should care:
(1) It's fairly clear that Glu is attempting to reduce the overall pool of gold in players' accounts with the whole derby scheme. Add to this, the MASSIVE 20% rake that Glu takes on every single derby matchup is a clear indication that Glu wants the players to lose gold. Ok, I get it. Glu wants people to buy gold with real money. Fair enough. A 20% rake, however, is quite a lot. Compare this to poker rooms at casinos - the casino wants to get paid for providing the game, but they don't take too much for fear of scaring players away altogether. Wanna know what their maximum take is to keep players happy? 3% of the pot in every Vegas poker room I've ever seen. Some even have a maximum rake that supercedes the 3%, if pot is large enough.
 - my sincere thought here is that there is a rake below 20% that will actually INCREASE your amount of gold collected by convincing more total players to play in the derby. Let's say that at 20% rake, you have an average of 20,000 matchups per day, where you take 20% of the gold pool away from players. If you make your rake 10%, you might encourage 40,000 total matchups per day, your total rake remains the same, and you have enhanced the players' satisfaction, and likely encouraged additional derby play in the future. My point is that 20% is exceedingly high, and I guarantee that at some percentage lower than this, your maximum collection lies. I encourage Glu to experiment with where that maximum level is, but I assure you it's lower than 20%.
(2) Right now, I am hard pressed to find a derby matchup. At any level. 3 months ago, I couldn't hit start without seeing a matchup pop up immediately. This is how badly derby has been killed. For the reasons above, GLU WANTS MORE PEOPLE TO PLAY DERBY. More people play, Glu makes more gold - it is literally that simple. However, again for the reasons above, people are playing less and less. It's a lesson in basic human behavior, particularly around gambling (which is essentially what derby is about, just with app gold, not real money). If players do not truly believe they can win, THEY WILL NOT PLAY. You have to set up the derby such that people legitimately have a shot to win. Only then will the masses began playing again.

I believe the suggestions above are mutually beneficial. We both want gold - I want gold to spend, you want gold so people spend more. I really believe the suggestions further both goals, and hope that you sincerely consider them.

Regards,
INCREDIBLEMULK