Really disappointed with tourney reward setup

Unknown

In this past No Holds Barred tourney I maintained myself between ranks 1-5 the entire time. I figured that because the tourney was ending when I would be in bed, I would be shoved down about 20 spots by the time it was over. I basically got myself as high as possible because past experience has shown me that the rubber banding nonsense would make me lose 10-20 spots in the last hour of the tourney.

So when I woke up this morning, I was actually disappointed to find that I ended up in the Top 10. Why? Because that meant I wasn't in the Top 5, so I wasn't going to get anything good. Lo and behold, I ended up with ONE cover and 250 measly ISO. For being top 10. If I had just lost a few more spaces and been shoved down into the 11-25 range, I would've ended up with THREE covers, 250 ISO and 50 HP. Yes, I actually regret doing so well.

How does this make any sense? I did better, so I got a cruddier reward that made all the hard work not even worth it. It's either manage to stay in 1-5 or drop to 11-25. Because 6-10 sucks nards. You're basically punishing people for getting ranks 6-10.

The rewards don't have to be grouped together by character. Why not Grey Widow 3 covers, Black Widow Original 3 covers, then Grey Widow 2 covers, Black Widow Original 2 covers, Grey Widow 1 cover, Black Widow Original 1 cover, etc? That's so much more logical. I'm pretty disappointed by the current reward scheme in these tourneys. And I'm stumped how it was even for a second considered fair or rewarding for players.

(And, yes, I vaguely remember seeing a thread similar to this before, but I couldn't find it.)

Unknown

Haha! Totally agree. But just be thankful you didn't do so well you got 1st place (god forbid!).

I did the same as you. Went to bed in 4th and woke up...1st?? It seems a lot of people were overshooting their targets and then throwing matches to decrease their points!
I had to do the same, cause I sure as heck didn't want the **** 1st place prize....
Apologies to whoever lost the "yield to throw your points" match and came in first...

Unknown

I don't know if it's really fair to say a prize is worse simply based upon the number of covers you obtain. Of course 3 covers of a character will be better than 2 covers of the same character, but when you are talking about separate characters, that's not entirely true. It's simply perspective of needs and wants. I personally value the single, green cover of Grey Suit Widow over the multiple Original Widow covers, but that's because I'm building her up. The next guy might feel the opposite way.

Spoit

WorstAvenger wrote:

I don't know if it's really fair to say a prize is worse simply based upon the number of covers you obtain. Of course 3 covers of a character will be better than 2 covers of the same character, but when you are talking about separate characters, that's not entirely true. It's simply perspective of needs and wants. I personally value the single, green cover of Grey Suit Widow over the multiple Original Widow covers, but that's because I'm building her up. The next guy might feel the opposite way.

For the booby prize compared to any 3 3* covers? Even if you sell them, you get way less HP (and maybe ISO? Need to double check if placement gives better iso after top 10 or so)

Unknown

WorstAvenger wrote:

I don't know if it's really fair to say a prize is worse simply based upon the number of covers you obtain. Of course 3 covers of a character will be better than 2 covers of the same character, but when you are talking about separate characters, that's not entirely true. It's simply perspective of needs and wants. I personally value the single, green cover of Grey Suit Widow over the multiple Original Widow covers, but that's because I'm building her up. The next guy might feel the opposite way.

I see your point. No, they can't take into account every possible combination of player needs, what characters they're building, etc. But let's say from a "blank slate" perspective, meaning supposing that all covers are equally valued/wanted. It makes more sense that the better you do, the more covers you would get or that you would receive a "better" reward. From a blank slate perspective, or even just looking at plain numbers, giving one 3* cover for ranking 6-10, while those who rank 11-25 receive three 2* covers... It just doesn't add up to me.

I personally am building up both Widows, so all the covers were valuable to me. So, yes, that's why to me 3 vs. 1 is obviously a better reward. But even if they weren't covers I could use, it would still seem numerically skewed to me. I don't really look at how many stars a cover has. And that's partially because while 3* characters can reach higher levels, they're not necessarily better. There are 2* characters that have more or equal utility. The characters I use the most are actually 2*. In fact, besides Gray Widow, none of my 3* are in active rotation. And my laughable X-Force Wolverine has been practically forgotten because he's so covered in dust from disuse.

Unknown

Rarity is the thing though. Think of it in terms of the recruit tokens. You are far more likely to get a Orig Widow than a G Widow, by a factor of ten. You are also more likely to complete Orig Widow first, making those covers useless faster. You shouldn't consider it completely from a blank slater perspective, because let be honest, a someone relatively 'blank slate' is unlikely to place even top 25, never mind top 10. So, they will get covers useful to them. Higher level people are expected to work harder for the reward they likely need. Short term at a low level, the Original Widow is a better reward. Long term, G Widow is the better reward, unless you are so advanced you have her complete already.

The only reason this is thrown off a bit in the case of these characters is because Orig Widow is still kinda new (especially her black ability), so I lot of higher level folks don't have her complete yet either. G Widow has been around forever, and been the reward of many previous tournies, so demand for her isn't quite as high as most 3-* chars. Even still, there are enough top players looking to get her, not Orig Widow (Not that they'd be disappointed by 10-25 now that Black is included =D).

Unknown

The leveling math doesn't favor the break (1500 HP for 3 2* levels, 1250 HP for one 3* level); if your options were spending HP or winning tournaments then you'd be better off getting into the top 25. That being said, I'd still much rather get a single 3* (because those are simply not the only two options).

I was initially put off by the change in prizes when they went to two tournaments a week (you used to get single 3* covers all the way down to 25), but I think in retrospect that the old weekly challenges were usually 1000 man brackets instead of 200. So in general, I think the new prizing structure is an improvement. It just doesn't always look that way at first blush.

Unknown

Spending HP is only an option if you've gotten the cover once in the first place, though.

Unknown

Point taken.

Unknown

pumkin wrote:

Lo and behold, I ended up with ONE cover and 250 measly ISO. For being top 10. If I had just lost a few more spaces and been shoved down into the 11-25 range, I would've ended up with THREE covers, 250 ISO and 50 HP. Yes, I actually regret doing so well.

This is untrue.

Top 10 gets you 1 3* cover (sell value: 150 ISO and 25 HP), 250 ISO, AND 100 HP. Top 25 gets you 3 2* covers (sell value: 375 ISO, 0 HP), 250 ISO, and 50 HP. So if all you do is sell them then you end up down by 225 ISO and up 75 HP. Given that 225 ISO is 2 average PvP matches, that's not exactly a huge loss.

From a cover perspective you're still better off -- the 3* is simply harder to get in general. Perhaps 3 2*s would be more useful to you, but that doesn't change the equation for the general case.

The only real travesty is 1st vs 2nd -- a single 4* vs 3 3*s, with no bump in ISO or HP between the two. Even if the 4* was worth anything from a playing perspective (and it's not) the value for selling everything makes coming in 2nd much better. Or even 3-5. It's silly. But this has been covered again and again in many different topics.

Unknown

Funny, after making this thread I got a red Gray Widow cover from a standard recruit token. So I got what I would've gotten had I not been in the limbo zone.

Zathrus wrote:

This is untrue.

Top 10 gets you 1 3* cover (sell value: 150 ISO and 25 HP), 250 ISO, AND 100 HP. Top 25 gets you 3 2* covers (sell value: 375 ISO, 0 HP), 250 ISO, and 50 HP. So if all you do is sell them then you end up down by 225 ISO and up 75 HP. Given that 225 ISO is 2 average PvP matches, that's not exactly a huge loss.

Yes, I noticed that I left that off after I posted and didn't fix it because people had already responded to what I'd originally posted, if that makes sense. You have better luck with PVP matches than I do. My average is 70... That being said, should you really have to do additional PVP matches to end up with a "reward" equal to those who ranked lower than you? You're right though, 100 HP is a decent reward because it's currently enough to buy a 2* cover with the daily deal. If you look at it that way, 6-10 rank potentially gets you a 3* cover and a 2* cover...if you're into spending your HP on covers. I horde mine for the ninja price increases on cover slots. So I hadn't looked at it from that point of view.

EDIT: Just got rank 2 in that second round btw Once again, I had gotten myself higher than I meant to, so I decided to pound it out and try to stay second.