Peakmonsters says that you've got well less than $600 worth of cards (many of which you've probably gotten from the currently excessive rewards). Your collection rating says that you've got well less than $500 of non-duplicate cards. You wouldn't (and shouldn't) be anywhere near Champion I if it weren't for the bots because, looking at your collection on Peakmonsters, you simply don't have the cards to play at that level even if you were jacekw.
Unfortunately, Splinterlands is currently pay-to-play. What the developers really need to do is have a separate ladder without a collection score but offer much lower rewards.
Would you find that acceptable?
This is sort of the idea behind the separate league leaderboards part of the update. Players can get whatever amount of cards they want to buy which sets their league, and then they can compete with the other players in that league for the leaderboard prizes, which will obviously increase with higher leagues.
splinterlands/@dexy50/re-davemccoy-qf0eiz
If money grew in the trees, probably I would have created a game where you can't buy cards. But honestly money is important.
But there should still be a fighting chance for everyone.
@digital-wisdom
I've got enough maxedout and high level cards that I've spent ~$500 usd buying and I do beat on regular other players with maxedout cards.
Which only proves that investing $500 usd in this game is not a smart idea.
splinterlands/@dexy50/re-jarvie-qf0f6a