[2019] Is it possible for CG to change the reward structure of the game?

This is exactly, and I mean, exactly what I want to do. While we introduced modes like TW and GA to create a value for us to diversify the meta, the only way to make them matter is to move the crystals over. Squad Arena alone distributes $300,000 of crystals to players every single day.

The problem is, there’s no way to guarantee the same people who have their crystals on farm from SA would get them from other modes. And we’d have to make sure they could earn those crystals daily.

But I’d do it tomorrow if I thought that it wouldn’t massively disrupt one of the constants of the game for a ton of players.

Oh there are crystals in other modes, but it's about where the majority of the source comes from.

The JKA thing is interesting to me, we described the change that we ultimately ended up rolling out in the second paragraph of that section of the post, but I've seen people say "oh I didn't think the part about GR meant a restriction" and I do understand why that's so - but that's just a misunderstanding, so we'll think about that when we write the next explanation, but we just can't always convey our meaning.

Just like "tip of the spear" is just an expression to describe the people who get there first, and when I use it, I'm including the nearly 1k people who got Malak without ever spending $1 in this game. There are a lot of people who pride themselves on being completely F2P and still at the frontlines, and they are very much included in that sentiment.

It's not a problem to have crystals from other sources, we add crystals all the time. The issue is the major inflow has been squad arena, and it's dependable. And it's not just one group of people, lots of people rely on it.

Singular team domination is absolutely not the intention, but it will take time. We need to message clearly and make changes incrementally. The game has been out for three and a half years, and when we make changes, they're not always well received, so messaging, describing our intent, and slowly moving that way is how we do it. I realize that in being slow, people think that means our intentions change, but sometimes it's easier to show on reflection (basically the introduction of TB/TW represents a year plus path for the gameplay involving social connections and guild play that has been very intentional, but would have sounded crazy/too slow if we tried to describe it up front).