How it all started
As an early player of CR, a long term Pass Royale holder and a pretty big spender over the years, I felt partly betrayed by what CR had become.
My skill seemingly no longer mattered, at least not in the way it used to. When I came back to CR in late 2025/early 2026 the message was clear. Use the current metas and forget my old playstyle or suffer the consequences… a ~50% win rate.
I couldn’t find or build a single deck that consistently won over 50-55% of my ranked games… Previously seasons I often hit 65-85% win rates on my climb up to ultimate champion.
I knew something was up, because I could tell I wasn’t loosing due to skill, I was loosing to pure mathematics… matchmaking.
With no way to tell how matchmaking really works and no way to prove if Supercell was actually “rigging” games in the sense that I was experiencing, I decided to build an alternative.
So that’s the short story, but below is a list of things Refuge aims to create and protect/preserve long term:
- Transparency
- High-integrity & fair Matchmaking
- Deck Building & Mastery
- Card Collection & Mastery
- Player Archetype Mastery
- Communication with the community
But what is Refuge?
Refuge is for Veterans
Clash Royale has been around for over a decade at this point. And their game has changed a lot over the years. To some, like me, it can almost feel unrecognizable to what it once was. Refuge aims to do the opposite. We strive to bring true “additions” to the game while being extremely cautious that the new additions are not destructive to existing playstyles or player experiences in general. Updates and changes are not made lightly.
Refuge is forever “Free to Play”, with no purchasable power… ever
- Gold & tickets: Free in-game currencies you get from playing the game and will be available for power related spending.
- Gems: Normally only obtainable via USD in the shop. Only usable in the cosmetic shop.
There’s so much more to the reasoning and story behind Refuge, and there’s much more to come down the line. Thanks for reading this blog post, hopefully see you inside the arena soon!