With the increase of the level cap to 55, the automatic promotion to Blood Gods will soon turn into an even bigger nightmare for the new gladiators than it already is, especially when all current Blood Gods members reach lvl 55 and swap their gear. The level 51 items are considerably stronger than their level 50 predecessors and if the trend remains the same with each new level, then the typical, fully equipped lvl 55 gladiator will be about twice stronger than a current lvl 50 gladiator in full orange outfit. Imagine that monster against some poor newbie, freshly ascending from Primus, being probably lvl 51 or 52 and still far, far away from even remotely adequate gear to compete (or even survive) in the top bracket.
Apart from that, the current automatic promotion seemingly discourages a large number of newer players from playing the end game - after experiencing many battles where their gladiators just get a severe beating without being able to do anything about it in short term, they either quit or just get rid of the said gladiators - hence why Blood Gods has effectively gradually turned into an old timer's club since its introduction. The veteran managers can afford to be more patient because they already know what it takes to be in Blood Gods and most of them already have at least 1-2 gladiators which do decently in that bracket so it never feels like you join only to supply cannon fodder to the other players who just started playing earlier than you.
There are other reasons why the automatic promotion isn't exactly great but the above are sufficient. Instead of being forced into the grinder directly after achieving some performance level, the Blood Gods entrance could be more sophisticated and... merciful. Here are some possible methods to achieve that:
1) Keep the current entrance conditions, but make the entrance manual, similar to the Blood Games. If the player agrees to be promoted when he meets the requirements - he enters the top bracket. Otherwise he stays in Primus. In order to avoid "Primus camping", there could be another sub-condition (or more than one, if needed) that forces the said gladiator into Blood Gods if he is eligible for entrance - like, say, earning 50 000 points on top of the minimum requirement or staying in Primus top 3 (and being eligible for BG promotion) for more than X weeks.
2) Introduce more conditions for the promotion on top of the existing ones. Minimum level requirement (higher than 50) is the first that comes to mind. The Olympian achievement - as a prerequisite - will ensure that there are no gladiators with unfinished training in Blood Gods, where they certainly don't belong. If that's too restrictive and "slow" for you, The Master (100/100 skill trains) could be the minimum. A barrier like that will also help the player gain a few more levels before the promotion.
3) Create a new mini-game, designed exclusively to address (and delay) the ascension to Blood Gods and boost the performance of the new entries. It could be something like this: the top 10 Primus gladiators, who have reached at least level 50, enter a tournament which lasts at least one week and starts every second week (or less often). They don't fight in the regular Primus matches but only among each other. At the end of the tournament, the top 3 performers are promoted and given an additional reward to help them handle themselves in the new environment - bonus training points, bonus BGP, bonus achievement slots "charging", the best among them may also get a free Fabled Epic/Legendary item. The gladiators positioned 4-10 return to Primus and may try again on the next tournament.
Of course, other approaches could be used as well but the point is to make the ascension to Blood Gods more manageable and thus accessible for more players.
