The other face of clash of clans that you dont know

First let me introduce myself, I'm a clash of clans player for around 1 year and 2 months.

I started playing this game after a friends recommendation, and I am a strategy game fan that grew up in the era of Command and Conquer game "Red Alert". When i started clash of clans, i was impressed by the graphics, the chat, and great features inside specially the idea of clans and raiding other real players through a mobile device.

It didn't took me a lot of time to realize that the key to max your village faster is by having 5 builders, so 5 or 6 days after starting, i decided to buy all of the builders at once.

After having my 5 builders working, i couldn't stop raiding and gathering resources, and walls was the only place to spend the extra amounts that remained.

2 months after, it was Christmas 2013, and SC offered the 1 gem boost for everything (seemed nice) so i grabbed a bag of gems for $10 knowing that loot will be much better and it was the holidays time so free time = more time to play. I can still remember that day where my th8 upgrade was done, and i had the mission of finishing skull walls (FYI: I maxed th7 before upgrading). I started playing around 12 to 16 hours daily on boost ( I always kept a free builder for walls)

7 days after, i completed skull walls and by new years eve, my storage was full, and loot was going really crazy, so i decided to upgrade to th9 so i can keep doing walls. So i decided now to get a box of gems, and i gemed my th9 instantaneously and kept farming Lego walls. ( i was really enjoying the game in that time )

few days later, the 1 gem boost was over, I was a th9 with a maxed th7 defense, finished skull walls and had few Lego walls. Sadly, after the 1 gem boost was over, i started feeling that this game is slow, and loot wasn't as good as it was, so i kept boosting my barracks all the time and i wasn't able to play without boosting after that.

Boosting is not for free in this game, but i kept playing for 10 hours daily on boost, and i farmed Lego walls in 1 months, and done my lava walls in 3 months and i decided to go th10 (By that time my defense was getting stronger )

Now that I was th 10, loot was getting really bad, the walls cost was heavy, the defense cost was very high, and i needed to play for 8 hours on boost to fill my storage ( average 1 Million per hour of each)

I kept pumping gems for boosting and rarely when i filled my DE storage and my heroes was both upgrading, i gemed the time remaining for a hero ( 1 or 2 days maximum )
It took me 6 months (in Th 10) playing 6 days a week 8 hours a day on average to reach this.

Now i have maxed my heroes, and i have 39 walls left to zap, i payed around a 1000$ for boosting (Btw: i don't regret any penny i spent because i enjoyed my time for a year and a 1000$ for that time of enjoyment is considered very low )

In my late th10 stages, i started making friends with high cups players, trying to make some friends in the top players list, and it was easy since i had a great profile, and i was almost online all the time, but the deeper i got to know those guys, the more i was surprised to know how it is up there and how much money is involved.

Being an active player for more than a year and spending a 1000$ was not enough to get me anywhere.

After M1 league, winning a defense is almost impossible no matter how maxed your village is and the only way for you to reach the top global list is by going offense and forgetting about defense ( more than 1 year upgrading your village gone for nothing )

When i say offense, its not barching or Baming or giants and goblins, I'm talking heavy troops and class A formations ( Gowiwi, Gowipe, Gowiwipe, LavaLoonions with 5 maxed spells and both heroes up )

The minimum time normally needed for any of the formations above is more than 3 hours for a single raid so you must boost your barracks, spell factory, heroes and you must gem your spells always because heroes and troops are ready way before your spells are done. By using gems, you will be able to lower the time required for each raid for around 40 minutes (on boost)

After you are done with paying for troops comes the matchmaking and the trophies system. the higher you get, the lower the trophies you can win and the higher the cups you lose for losing. and the current system is way unfair where starting from 3400 and above you almost get 1 cup for winning and you lose 39 for losing. so imagine it like this all the way up to 4500 cup !

This will change the concept of the game from (the better wins) to (You get as much as you pay).
When I'm talking about paying in champs league, I'm saying a minimum of 200$ weekly without losing any single raid. And those numbers are from top players in this game. but how many can afford this amount on a weekly basis and living under the pressure in every raid where losing a raid will cost you a month of playing and a thousand dollars to get back.

I think that Ive been playing this game for a long time and it took me a lot of time and money (And i don't regret it) to realize this ugly truth. and i wanted to share my experience with you specially the new players here that keeps opening the top players list and saying that one day i will be there.

This is the other face of clash of clans that most of you here don't know :)

Edit: I liked to add this link to project the future of your progress by giving you some important info about the time remaining and the amount you can pay to do it.
http://clashofclans.wikia.com/wiki/Cumulative_Costs

That's just sad. But then, time (and probably, money) you enjoy wasting is not wasted.

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Originally Posted by edergham

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It took me 6 months playing 6 days a week 8 hours a day on average to reach this.
....

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Get help. Seriously

They need to make defending more attractive up there, like you said losing a defense is next to impossible

No, without a sack of cash, youre not going to hit the tops of the leaderboards.
But, if youre that hardcore a farmer, and dont mind plugging many hours and a fair few $s in, you'd be stunned at how high you can get.
100 gems a day in boosts can make fast work through champs, as long as find some bases to attack.
Once it gets stupid cloudy, and takes an hour to find a base; as long as stay in search, no need to boost troops or heroes, theyll likely be ready by time you get back. Then u can insta gem spells. Still expensive, but doesnt have to be $100s a week.

Next tip is....dont hit the 1 cup offers. Not worth it.

A quick search of the forums could have confirmed what we all know by now - to maintain high trophy levels it costs a lot of time and /or money.

To be honest what you have said does not add up. You spent over 12 hours a day playing under boost? Barrack boost?? At TH8? Whilst loot was boosted too? It took around a year to max TH9 and i only got my 4th builder around 6 months into that time. I have only used in game gems.

I am a tiny bit confused.

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Originally Posted by willsolvit

They need to make defending more attractive up there, like you said losing a defense is next to impossible

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Defending is definitely an option in champs lge atm certainly below 4k trophies anyway

One of my clan members had around 20 defences last season at around 3400-3600 trophy range all legit and no funny business

It's the nature of the beast.

If you're going to try to place on the global leader board, you're naturally going to contend with everyone on Earth trying to do the same thing.

Many of those people have no qualms whatsoever about spending tons of money (i.e. rich parents), using exploits, and/or staying awake for insanely long periods at a time.

Long story short, if you're looking for happiness, you aren't going to find it on the global leader board.

Any satisfaction you get from placing there will be utterly negated by what it takes to get there.

He is talking about top champs not low champs
If you play defense at that level and only defense you can win that many but otherwise maybe 5-10 defense

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Originally Posted by queenxo

He is talking about top champs not low champs
If you play defense at that level and only defense you can win that many but otherwise maybe 5-10 defense

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I'm playing 4k+ and getting a good 5-6 defence wins a season which works out somewhere around 100-150 cups a season

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Originally Posted by Rowcoy

I'm playing 4k+ and getting a good 5-6 defence wins a season which works out somewhere around 100-150 cups a season

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Yes this is average for 3900 - 4000+ cup you see few who get lot of defense but I assume they playing defense to get the higher numbers. I don't play def

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Originally Posted by Lloopy14

A quick search of the forums could have confirmed what we all know by now - to maintain high trophy levels it costs a lot of time and /or money.

To be honest what you have said does not add up. You spent over 12 hours a day playing under boost? Barrack boost?? At TH8? Whilst loot was boosted too? It took around a year to max TH9 and i only got my 4th builder around 6 months into that time. I have only used in game gems.

I am a tiny bit confused.

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As i said, after th7, i used to upgrade my town hall whenever i finished walls because i always wanted a way to spend the resources i got.
to make it clear.
Town hall 8 have 225 wall that each wall costs 500k gold to upgrade to skull.
225 * 500,000 = 112,500,000
Average loot on boost for a town hall 8 is around 1.5 Million (profit) gold per hour
Playing average of 12 hours daily => 12 * 1,500,000 = 18,000,000 Gold Profit Daily
It took me 7 days to upgrade my walls to skull => 18,000,000 * 7 = 126,000,000

So in 7 days, in th8 it is applicable to farm your walls if you can play 12 hours on boost.

FYI: th9 walls lego walls took around a month, and lava walls took around 3 months.

Zaps are taking me more time because th10 loot is a real nightmare and im kinda losing interest in this game, but i will max them and let you know the overall time for that.

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Originally Posted by Superfinch30

No, without a sack of cash, youre not going to hit the tops of the leaderboards.
But, if youre that hardcore a farmer, and dont mind plugging many hours and a fair few $s in, you'd be stunned at how high you can get.
100 gems a day in boosts can make fast work through champs, as long as find some bases to attack.
Once it gets stupid cloudy, and takes an hour to find a base; as long as stay in search, no need to boost troops or heroes, theyll likely be ready by time you get back. Then u can insta gem spells. Still expensive, but doesnt have to be $100s a week.

Next tip is....dont hit the 1 cup offers. Not worth it.

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you are 100% correct. that's how I'm gonna play it from now on coz that's the only way to do it without spending crazy amounts. time and patience is the only way when u reach 3400+

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Originally Posted by Rowcoy

I'm playing 4k+ and getting a good 5-6 defence wins a season which works out somewhere around 100-150 cups a season

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You may win 5-6 defenses, but how much u lose ? way more. And the cups you lose will always be way more than the ones you win. the idea here is that maxing your village doesn't give you any advantage in this game and that will make players that worked hard to max really disappointed.

Welcome to business. You are merely a customer. Every decision the company makes revolves around if it makes them more money. Having a choice between more money or happy customers, guess which one the big business chooses.

Buyer's beware policy. Ive played for almost two years. Never gave them a dime even when they were small-time. Happy with my decision.

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Originally Posted by edergham

You may win 5-6 defenses, but how much u lose ? way more. And the cups you lose will always be way more than the ones you win. the idea here is that maxing your village doesn't give you any advantage in this game and that will make players that worked hard to max really disappointed.

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In Champion League; you are under attack in the minute after you disconnect..
So, a lot of def lost....

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Originally Posted by Mdrxc3

Welcome to business. You are merely a customer. Every decision the company makes revolves around if it makes them more money. Having a choice between more money or happy customers, guess which one the big business chooses.

Buyer's beware policy. Ive played for almost two years. Never gave them a dime even when they were small-time. Happy with my decision.

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Lucky for you and everyone else who have not spent money on the game, there are a lot of other players paying to play. Otherwise, you would not have enjoyed the updates to the game and it would've gotten stale real quick (I recall reading th8 was maxed when the game first came out.)

Like you say, they are business and it costs money to produce,maintain,update the game... they have to be profitable to stay in business, so I have no problems throwing them some cash. Although some ppl do get overboard (imo), at the end of the day, if they are happy and can afford it more power to them.

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Originally Posted by R3dB3anTig3r

Lucky for you and everyone else who have not spent money on the game, there are a lot of other players paying to play. Otherwise, you would not have enjoyed the updates to the game and it would've gotten stale real quick (I recall reading th8 was maxed when the game first came out.)

Like you say, they are business and it costs money to produce,maintain,update the game... they have to be profitable to stay in business, so I have no problems throwing them some cash. Although some ppl do get overboard (imo), at the end of the day, if they are happy and can afford it more power to them.

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I don't mind buying gems. And the people that do keep the game going.
Like the OP said, the amount of entertainment we get for the money is very low.

This made me, a TH7, not want to keep playing :(

these people need to get a real hobby.
I play this game a lot because its fun but spending hundreds of dollars a week just to get your name on a leader board somewhere? What a silly waste.

At least if you were playing Darts or something you'd be developing a real world skill and eye hand coordination.

a very candid account, warts and all, thanks for sharing

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Originally Posted by lolnopound

This made me, a TH7, not want to keep playing :(

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As long as you are not striving to be a top player in the game....the game will still be enjoyable. When I was pushing, it is pretty nerve racking (having to stay on as long as possible and pressures of not losing a raid). There is pressure even for Clan Wars (depending on the clan). That's why I enjoy farming my heroes/walls.

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Originally Posted by Roarke

It's the nature of the beast.

If you're going to try to place on the global leader board, you're naturally going to contend with everyone on Earth trying to do the same thing.

Many of those people have no qualms whatsoever about spending tons of money (i.e. rich parents), using exploits, and/or staying awake for insanely long periods at a time.

Long story short, if you're looking for happiness, you aren't going to find it on the global leader board.

Any satisfaction you get from placing there will be utterly negated by what it takes to get there.

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i agree, trying to reach the top of the leaderboard on the highest grossing app on the AppStore/Playstore is not going to be a stroll in the park. Also makes sense trophies are +1, otherwise it would be easy to get to 4,500, then the top leaderboard would be what!? 8,000 cups? It just replace a problem by another problem.

i love CoC but I also enjoy gaming in general. I think a key is to set yourself a goal and be done with it once reached. No need to try to be #1 for 6months in a row, unless your into that and as you find out, will cost you deerly (time & money).

After all, isn't that what everything is?

of course you have people who will make it wthout gems

but it's just too difficult to reach without gemming troops

So this is about gemming to get to champs? Yeah, i knew this already.

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Originally Posted by edergham

As i said, after th7, i used to upgrade my town hall whenever i finished walls because i always wanted a way to spend the resources i got.
to make it clear.
Town hall 8 have 225 wall that each wall costs 500k gold to upgrade to skull.
225 * 500,000 = 112,500,000
Average loot on boost for a town hall 8 is around 1.5 Million (profit) gold per hour
Playing average of 12 hours daily => 12 * 1,500,000 = 18,000,000 Gold Profit Daily
It took me 7 days to upgrade my walls to skull => 18,000,000 * 7 = 126,000,000

So in 7 days, in th8 it is applicable to farm your walls if you can play 12 hours on boost.

FYI: th9 walls lego walls took around a month, and lava walls took around 3 months.

Zaps are taking me more time because th10 loot is a real nightmare and im kinda losing interest in this game, but i will max them and let you know the overall time for that.

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Maths wasnt what i as getting at. Its the whole. Its your whole post. I'm not a fan of that writing style and I dont buy into it.


I understood the whole post along the lines of

"Without understanding the mechanics of the game i decided to spend a lot of money, before researching the game, on upgrading my walls neglecting other things. I upgraded to TH9 and then the loot penalty started to hit. So I spent a lot more money. I decided to trophy push & I spent more money.. I then decided to write a post on the forum about it. I called the dark side of supercell because.... I spent gems to progress faster in the game despite knowing i could have waited."

Am I right or wrong?

Tbh with the amount of money you spent i am assuming you are an adult and not a teen with access to a parents credit card.

There is however a good lesson here. Research, research research. Particularly where there is money involved.

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Originally Posted by DarthxYoda

i love CoC but I also enjoy gaming in general. I think a key is to set yourself a goal and be done with it once reached. No need to try to be #1 for 6months in a row, unless your into that and as you find out, will cost you deerly (time & money).

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This.

I've been playing Clash now for about 9 months, and it didn't take me long to realise I would never be a 'top' player in the leaderboard sense. But that really doesn't bother me in the slightest. Leaderboards are not why I play Clash or any other game for that matter.

I don't mind spending some money on gems every now and then, but I am disciplined enough to keep it in perspective and always consider the value for money element. I played CoD for years, hardly spent any money and got hours of entertainment without ever being near the top of any leaderboard. Clash is going the same way. The key word is entertainment. While Clash entertains me I will play. When the entertainment stops, I will move on.

OP I noticed the exact same and figured out the only way to really push in champs is via a credit card...

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Originally Posted by generious

OP I noticed the exact same and figured out the only way to really push in champs is via a credit card...

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You can become a Champion, without bying Gems.

Just have to use the one given by the game, stock them, and use them
to boost héros and spells factory during your push.

Become champion is not so difficult, i think.
To reach more than 3400/3500 without paying looks, for me, more difficult.

I have been in champs for about a half year now and to be honest once you go above 3850 cups game play starts to get very boring. Sometimes it can take hours to find a base with good cups and the long searches just get worse the higher you go.

I was very disappointed to finally have maxed my base and realize that to reach the top 200 players I would have to stay on-line for long hours and boost my heroes, barracks and spells every time I log on just to look at one cup bases and get a couple of attacks in. Not to mention that I would have to compete with other champs who are exploiting the game.

Anyways not a whole lot of fun to look forward to in high champs as the matching system is now. The matching system is broken IMO and needs to be more balanced. Instead of offering 1 cup bases and the occasional 40 or 50 cups base they need to offer fewer cups for a win and give fewer cup for a loss. This would make search times much less and make it more attractive to attack a base knowing that you won't lose 39 cups for a loss.

This would also give people more incentive to go to champs and not just stay in the masters with there maxed out bases. I am not saying the reaching the the top should be easy but it doesn't have to be boring either. Bring some fun back in the game for those champs trying to reach the top 200.

IGN: Qubiskop
Clan: Nightshifter
TH lvl: 10
League: champions

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...ut-buying-gems
It's absolutely possible to get far into Champs without spending money. Perhaps your ridiculous hours of farming didn't prepare you well for pushing.

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Originally Posted by Chumpskers

I have been in champs for about a half year now and to be honest once you go above 3850 cups game play starts to get very boring. Sometimes it can take hours to find a base with good cups and the long searches just get worse the higher you go.

I was very disappointed to finally have maxed my base and realize that to reach the top 200 players I would have to stay on-line for long hours and boost my heroes, barracks and spells every time I log on just to look at one cup bases and get a couple of attacks in. Not to mention that I would have to compete with other champs who are exploiting the game.

Anyways not a whole lot of fun to look forward to in high champs as the matching system is now. The matching system is broken IMO and needs to be more balanced. Instead of offering 1 cup bases and the occasional 40 or 50 cups base they need to offer fewer cups for a win and give fewer cup for a loss. This would make search times much less and make it more attractive to attack a base knowing that you won't lose 39 cups for a loss.

This would also give people more incentive to go to champs and not just stay in the masters with there maxed out bases. I am not saying the reaching the the top should be easy but it doesn't have to be boring either. Bring some fun back in the game for those champs trying to reach the top 200.

IGN: Qubiskop
Clan: Nightshifter
TH lvl: 10
League: champions

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First let me thank you for reading the whole post.
What you are saying is true and it hits exactly the problem. after 3800 the game turns from skill game to Credit Card game, ditching all of ur progress and time spent.
IMO the cups offering after 3800 is not fair. its more about luck and money.my point was that when i started this game, like every new player, i kept checking the top leaderboards and aiming to max my village with those blue zaps thinking that itll make my village invincible, untill i discovered the ugly truth about how it ends.
Anw as i said before, the joy about this game is the ride, not the destination. its the time u spend having fun, sharing, competing, going on global, improving ur profile :)

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Originally Posted by MrScribbler

http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...ut-buying-gems
It's absolutely possible to get far into Champs without spending money. Perhaps your ridiculous hours of farming didn't prepare you well for pushing.

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Perhaps your ridiculous way of reading is the problem ! first, I never mentioned that i dont want to spend money, second, going 4k cups is a thing and hitting the top leaderboard is completely another thing !
Please next time try to read the post more than once maybe that will help u decrease ur ridiculous replies

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Originally Posted by edergham

After M1 league, winning a defense is almost impossible no matter how maxed your village is and the only way for you to reach the top global list is by going offense and forgetting about defense ( more than 1 year upgrading your village gone for nothing )

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That's really sad. There is no point in maxing walls, defenses and heroes then... what's the point of playing for 6-8 hours per day and raiding n raiding n raiding... :(:(

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Originally Posted by Mdrxc3

Welcome to business. You are merely a customer. Every decision the company makes revolves around if it makes them more money. Having a choice between more money or happy customers, guess which one the big business chooses.

Buyer's beware policy. Ive played for almost two years. Never gave them a dime even when they were small-time. Happy with my decision.

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Good one. Thanks for being the inspiration

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Originally Posted by Lloopy14

Maths wasnt what i as getting at. Its the whole. Its your whole post. I'm not a fan of that writing style and I dont buy into it.


I understood the whole post along the lines of

"Without understanding the mechanics of the game i decided to spend a lot of money, before researching the game, on upgrading my walls neglecting other things. I upgraded to TH9 and then the loot penalty started to hit. So I spent a lot more money. I decided to trophy push & I spent more money.. I then decided to write a post on the forum about it. I called the dark side of supercell because.... I spent gems to progress faster in the game despite knowing i could have waited."

Am I right or wrong?

Tbh with the amount of money you spent i am assuming you are an adult and not a teen with access to a parents credit card.

There is however a good lesson here. Research, research research. Particularly where there is money involved.

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The aim of this thread was never to discourage players from spending money, and i don't regret any dollar i spent on this game, actually this game helped me save a lot of money by avoiding my other costly activities i used to do before. and always remember, people that buy gems are paying for super cell staff that are making this game available for others to play. so without people spending money of this game, this game will be doomed, and the day people stops paying gems, that's the day where this game will end.

What i was aiming here was the final destination of every ambitious player that started this game aiming to reach the leader board thinking that hardcore playing can be the way, IT IS NOT !
To be honest i think i achieved what i wanted in this game, i farmed maxed heroes, farmed full level 11 walls, i have an awesome profile, my profile literally causes jaw-drops :) and I'm in the Farmers hall of fame.
Eventually i am satisfied with what i achieved for now, all i wanted to share here was my personal experience for others to realize how this journey will end :)

Good read. I read a bit about the game before I started playing, and knew I wouldn't put the money in like the top ranks. It's seems ridiculous to me, the amount they've paid to maintain rank in a free to play game. On top of the money they spend, they then have to pull marathon sessions on the game to reach/maintain those top ranks.

I went to champs just to get the achievement and free gems then decided to hang around a few days. It wasn't fun at low champ and I only assumed it would be worse as I went up. Since then I just drop down to gold or silver and fight back to master 2 or 1 over the next 3-4 days then repeat. I try out some goofy army comps in lower leagues to keep it enjoyable.

Good insight into high level game play! Thanks