I can't say I didn't expect this. Back when my !PIZZA guild community saw the changes to staking SPS requirements "coming soon", I had already anticipated that the SPS needed would be close to the amounts required for staked SPS in Splinterlands tournaments.
My only concern now is that the SPL team has said they wanted to improve the new player experience. Will this do that? New players will be hard pressed into throwing a whole lot of money into the game which doesn't even give them any cards.