it used to be that having only one maxed splinter was enough. then at the end of beta that wasn't possible anymore. but now with new players coming in, gold is quite a weak division. diamond III is quite weak as well. But then get to diamond I and i hit a wall and see lots of familiar names. these would be your top ~250 players or so.

so there doesn't seem much of a 'middle class' in this game. this would make sense if people are coming in waves (which, with the way that new card sets are released, wouldn't be surprising).

thing is, it doesn't take a lot of USD to get to 'middle class'. if you had about $15 to use for renting a summoner and a few strong cards, you'd get to diamond no problem