Forum Discussion
Yes, the days of Torb and late AMT, in retrospect, were great. Lots of engaging events where you had to plan out how to tackle the event, who to claim, what you could get as F2P, if the star pass would help, or if you would need to spend extra for a card you really wanted. If there was one thing I'd bring back from Torb's days would be GMR. It was a great insole movement tracker gimmick to tell you how you performed in the game/training. Extra sweat on the real football pitch got you some great rewards, so IMO it was a top-notch idea back then.
Anyway, WRT this event, no idea why it's there or what purpose it really serves, why USA (even the selection of Japan was questionable imo), where are the World Champions? It's just a guessing game where you can find the answers on the guide portals within 5 mins of the daily reset, and as pointed out, the rewards are underwhelming. I asked via the mod channel a similar question to the OP's and x611x9dg462h posts (and I'll have a word with Pulsar about it).