Many high ranked players have used, and are continuing to use, Gold as a means of resetting their OC timer at a certain point. This has long acted as a costly alternative to waiting timers out, and has provided a natural time advantage when climbing the ranks.
From my own firsthand experience, it was easier than ever to rank using gold at the start of this round. If you maxed your gym stats (Reached Level 40), you were able to reset every thirty minutes. This meant that in a twenty-four hour stint you could do a maximum of 48 OCS for a cost of 2880 gold! This was changed roughly a month into the round, allowing you to only reset when your timer has five hours or less remaining; at a cost of 10 Gold for each remaining hour (rounded up). This has effectively made ranking to Don not quite the achievement it once was.
I myself used over 4000 gold to reset from Don to State Don. Some would say that this is a small price to pay for a private Bullet Factory and roughly $500,000 profit from State cuts a day. With great rank comes great risk, and we have seen all too well the demise and wasted resources spent chasing the State Don dream this round.
Has ranking fast become a 'pay-to-win' feature this round? Is Gold ranking unfair and too cheap? Can a new/lone player even reach the top anymore without substantial Gold reserves behind him/her?
Let us know what YOU think. Every contributor will be entered into a dice game, with 150 Gold for the winner!
