I'm of the same opinion Duane thtats why I'm not trying to compete so I fall down the rankings the only way I will play is not to compete but to get my fanbase back should someone beat me but i'd rather not play in the current system I also sometimes take a lesser opponent out in ranking on my map to keep my ranking as far back as possible cos I don't want to be challenged in the current regime.

The bit you guys are missing...
Before the last update.... it was almost impossible for some...
Let's include me.... it was impossible for me to get to 155000 fans.
8 training games in a day won me 800 fans. But lose a league game or a guild game or a tournament game and minus 1100 fans...
So yes. Nearly impossible to get to 155k fans.
In the new system I got to max fans: 169k fans. Granted we had that reprieve of not losing fans in December. But this year, I have been challenged a bunch... lost lots of fans etc... yet my current fan base is 162k. That's 7k more than what I could never get before.... 100 fans a win is now 1000 fans a win....
Just pointing that out....

Don't get me wrong. I agree that it would be nice to be rewarded for defending... but what's to stop a top ten player dropping down to 500 just to be able to defend like mad... and be rewarded...
What I know is: when I play in the 100-200 ranking range, I get challenged a lot.... but in the 400-500 range, not as much...
Perhaps perhaps... I'm not a 100-200 team lol
Because if I truelly were I would probably defend better...

the thing your missing faerie is yes it was tough b4 the update getting fans once you got above 140000 mark with fans and if you read all the post on the subject you will realise its not just about losing the fans when your challenge its about the amouny of game when you challenging you can only play 5 games fair enough its limited but the unfair part is you could get challenge possibly 10 or 20 times how is that fair? for example you play your 5 challenges win all 5 gain 5000 fans ok no problem BUT then you could get challenge 10 or more times which i have since the update lose all 10 challenges and lose 10000 fans how is that fair a net lose of 5000 fans and thats what these developers can not or will not understand just make the game fair!!!

The same rules apply to everyone, how is that unfair? There's a reason you are getting challenged so much, the players see you as an easy target. So you are in a position of making a choice, drop down in the rankings where you are deemed less of a target and more of a challenge or push up the rankings and be targeted.

If everybody gets limited in the number of times they get challenged then you'll be playing the same people over and over

I like the new ranking system as a principal, but feel that in it's current format is not a true refection of who is the best in the game. There are some very good players who are deliberately dropping in rankings to get challenged less.
Perhaps the solution is to make the ranking system independant to fans gained and lost. This can be done in championship, gvg and tournaments.
I would up the amount of training points gained for playing a training match to equal that of championship and tournies and that would be the reward for playing training matches, player development.

I agree with you taffy. In fact I raised such problems early in the thread. But what qball says seems true.
When I was lingering in the 100-200 rank range. I was being challenged often and losing.
But now that I'm in the 200-400 range I am not challenged as often and sometime I defend a few challenges up here. (Or down here)

Best rank 32 and I was challenged on average 10-15 times daily. Last when I looked yesterday rank was at about 2250 and at this stage I am being challenged 1 or 2 times a day and rarely do they win me. If I lose a match I gain the fans very easy aswell because of "weaker" teams in that margin.

Sorry to hear we lost you up top.

Don't get me wrong. I will love to be up there just my team isn't good enough. Plus most of my stronger guys retire in a few days