As a new player I lost loads of battles due to poor performance, the game showed the battles in battle history but neither side showed any Sorcerers or Monsters picked.
This negatively affected my rating and contributed to dropping me from Bronze III (Rating Points:395) to Novice at the end of the Season. I now know this means I get no chests.
Also there was a flurry of player activity and I found myself playing others who had far better cards than me. Another lesson learned. As a new starter with no cards of your own, just the $10 starter pack - do not play games at the end of the season, you will get slaughtered and end up a Novice with no rewards for getting into Bronze III.
However on the battle screen it said at the beginning of the season (before I played any battles) and still says Pending Rewards - Claim 5 reward chests!
If I click Claim, I get a nice red error popup stating There was an error Completing this transaction: The specified player does not have any rewards to claim from the specified season.
In the interests better of gameplay this announcements changes are a positive move, however going from 395 Battle Points to Novice caused partly by the spinning circle and chomping jaw when starting a ranked battle, finding I had surrendered because of website issues was a bitter pill to swallow.
I raised a ticket with support when the new season started, but so far have had no response.
At the end of the season in 11 days I will be waiting for the season to end before attempting the daily quest, to prevent me losing my end of season 5 chest reward.
So I am changing my gameplay because the game mechanics rob me of all my hard work.
It would be far better to reward people with chests befitting their season best, this would reduce the flurry of activity at the end of the season, causing performance issues and spread the gameplay across the season, reducing end of season load on the servers.
Also please understand that new players cannot buy booster packs or dice to swell their card collection. They are reliant on the card resale, rental market, season rewards and daily quest chests this puts them at a serious disadvantage in the game.
I hope this helps new players like myself to avoid repeating my experience.
O&W