King of the Ring is a 48-hour tournament mode. Unlike Exhibition where you have direct control of your cards, the matches are simulated.
- Each King of the Ring Tournament consists of 45 qualification matches and up to 3 tournament games, which are each best of 3. Matches occur every hour.
- In King of the Ring, you construct a deck that consists of 8 Superstars, 2 Divas, and 4 Support cards, with half of them being active at a time. Active superstars lose stamina each game, inactive ones gain stamina back.
- After each match, you can manage your superstars for the next game, allowing you to check in on your cards each round. You do not actively play every match like Exhibition mode, but you will see that your cards now use Stamina, which is exclusive to this mode.
Stamina & Energy Cards
- Every King of the Ring game will drain stamina from your Superstars and Divas. In order to recover stamina, you must either swap the card out with one of your inactive cards, or use an energy card which you can gain randomly using picks. Energy cards will replenish the entire stamina bar of the chosen Superstar or Diva.
Boost Cards
- Additionally, you can use one of several boost cards. Boost cards are also earned randomly using picks, and will give you 15% boosts for a specific stat going into your next King of the Ring match. You can also spend in-game currency to refuel stamina or automatically manage the stamina of the lowest-stamina card for 8 games.
Rewards
- King of the Ring tournaments are also impacted by the rank of your deck, which again determines the rewards you will receive for playing. The quality of the rewards depends on the decks rank when you start the game, and rank can be influenced during the tournament by training, but cards cannot be changed, replaced, or combined to pro status when in King of the Ring.
Tips for King of the Ring Success
The King of the Ring game mode can be a very useful means of creating killer Pro cards, being that both the Winners and Runners Up places award you with a pair of superstars relevant to the tier you’re currently fighting under. However, preparing for the tournament, and then competing, can prove to be both an endurance run, and a fairly astute game of strategy. Here’s some tips on how to maximise your impact on the tournament.
Before Entering
- Take your reserves seriously. A lot of people will throw superstars in to fill the void, whilst making their A-team the big focus. If you’re dripping in energy cards and deck refills, then sure, that works just fine, but for the rest of us we need to be considerate and create a reserve line-up that just about matches your starters stat for stat. If you need to, grind a bit and put work in to levelling up your reserves before hitting KOTR. The effort will pay off.
- Have 5/5 energy cards. This isn’t necessarily that big a deal anymore, now that resting your superstars gives you double the stamina, but hitting the tournament with a full stack of energy cards will definitely reward you when you need that important result, and to have your talent on top form.
- Make sure your support cards cover all angles. Having a rotation of support cards that enhance all four of the main attributes is very handy, especially when you know your deck has a particular weakness in one area. Equally, if you’re particularly exceptional in some attributes, you know that those do not need your attention, and you can remove supports in those areas.
- Consider the time of day you enter. KOTR is (currently) a very long tournament: your superstars are going to be competing in 45 matches alone, before even qualifying. That’s 45 ten-minute matches, each with a gap of around 50 minutes in between. On average you’re looking at an hour from match to match. That’s a two-day commitment. Beyond that, if you qualify, that’s a further 9 matches (3 in each the quarters, semis, and finals) adding around 9 further hours to your tournament time. If you start your tournament at 10pm Monday, you could find yourself in the knockout stages of the tournament while you’re fast asleep. Factor in this time, and try to kick your tournament off early afternoon (or whatever suits your sleeping schedule).
Once Entered
- It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Winning all of your qualifying matches is great, but not necessary. Sometimes you can take a loss if you need to rest people. Ensure you’re in the blue, upper-half of the table, and you’ll qualify for the finals either way.
- Don’t blow your load early. This is, again, pertaining to the marathon metaphor. Your energy cards should be saved for the finals where possible, as the game can be a real dick about giving you them in picks when you’re in the KOTR (although conveniently can’t award enough of them to you when you have 5/5 and aren’t competing). The wisest way to use energy cards during qualifying is to blast all your A-squad with them before going to sleep, this ensures that they’re full-strength while you’re away from the action.
- Once qualified, monitor other matches. The ability to see Game Recaps from other matches is vital if you wanna understand the kinds of decks other people are playing with. The game won’t allow you to see the exact stats of other player’s cards, but based on your own knowledge of certain Superstars you can make safe assumptions that they excel in certain areas, and then make allowances for that.
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Save boosts for your last flurry. The much maligned boost cards give all your cards a 15% jump in a certain stat, if you’ve done your research like in the point above, then they can be very helpful in getting one over in the finals. The ideal way to use them is to first test the waters with an opponent, if you think you’re short on an attribute, take a hit in the first match and see what happens. If you get beat, you know you’re short, and you come back the following round with your boost in play.
References: Reddit | WWESupercard.com