9 years ago
Wait, you like tournaments!?
I made it a policy of mine that whenever I go to a restaurant and receive poor service, I'll only say something negative to the manager if I'm also willing to say something positive to the manager when I have excellent service. With that framework in mind, I really enjoy tournaments. I understand that is quite an unpopular opinion (from perusing the forums), but I wanted to give positive feedback on something, just as I would give negative feedback if I felt strongly in the other direction.
"How can you possibly like tournaments!? It's such a grind, and requires a massive time commitment, and the rewards aren't balanced...etc"
I definitely hear all those complaints, and I won't claim any of them are invalid. But what I can provide is a small list of why I enjoy tournaments:
Preface: I feel that this game is comprised of 3 weapons that help make players successful: (a) wallet - self explanatory, (b) time - having more time than others to sink into the game can be a massive advantage, and (c) decision making - whether it's who to farm, or what team to fight in tourneys, decision making is obviously a huge factor.
That being said, I like tourneys because:
1) While I can't compete with others in the wallet aspect (perhaps self-labeled as a fish?), I can work my schedule so that I can sink in time on tourney days. Yes, the shrinking of the tourney from 3 days to 1 day was a much needed improvement. This means that I actually have a chance to compete against the whales.
2) I find the strategy and decision making of tourneys absolutely fascinating. I refresh enemy comps a ton. I mean, a ton a ton. I cross-check speeds of enemies and I draw up a gameplan. Easy example would be facing a team that applies a lot of debuffs. Sure I could use Wiggs...but I could also implement my far less often-used Phasma (modded for speed to use Victory March), along with Yoda (for battle meditation) and 2 DPS toons and a tank to squeeze out a victory with non-meta toons in an effort to save ally points.
3) Perhaps an add-on to the last point, tournaments allow me to use the full depth of my roster. I get to try out fun new comps I would never stick in the arena, and use forgotten-toons (against weak tourney teams).
4) A tie-in to point #1, I love that tourneys use a "near-useless" currency in ally points. Far superior to crystal refreshes for the average player, ally points can only be used for bronziums otherwise. Furthermore, being able to buy ally points in the Galactic War shop will give an edge to those people (like myself and many others) that grind out galactic war each day (because we get the GW currency and can buy AP's). With the introduction of ships in GW shipments, this also gives you a choice of whether you're buying ship shards or AP--another element that will factor into your successes and failures.
I know there's been talk of an overhaul of tourneys, but I just wanted to provide some feedback on an aspect of this game that I really enjoy. My experience has been one finish in the top 1000, one finish in the top 25, a 2nd place finish, and the rest of the tourneys I finished top 100. I would classify the top 100 as a moderate grind, the top 25 as the true definition of the word grind, the top 10 as a massive grind, and the top 5 as a life-consuming grind (for the day). I know that many people can't sink time into tourneys at this rate, so please know that I understand your dissatisfaction.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway is that it's nice to have an element of the game that isn't as much wallet based as it is decision and time based. It will be interesting to see if they scrap tourneys altogether, tweak them or leave them as is; best of luck to everyone regardless of how this turns out!
"How can you possibly like tournaments!? It's such a grind, and requires a massive time commitment, and the rewards aren't balanced...etc"
I definitely hear all those complaints, and I won't claim any of them are invalid. But what I can provide is a small list of why I enjoy tournaments:
Preface: I feel that this game is comprised of 3 weapons that help make players successful: (a) wallet - self explanatory, (b) time - having more time than others to sink into the game can be a massive advantage, and (c) decision making - whether it's who to farm, or what team to fight in tourneys, decision making is obviously a huge factor.
That being said, I like tourneys because:
1) While I can't compete with others in the wallet aspect (perhaps self-labeled as a fish?), I can work my schedule so that I can sink in time on tourney days. Yes, the shrinking of the tourney from 3 days to 1 day was a much needed improvement. This means that I actually have a chance to compete against the whales.
2) I find the strategy and decision making of tourneys absolutely fascinating. I refresh enemy comps a ton. I mean, a ton a ton. I cross-check speeds of enemies and I draw up a gameplan. Easy example would be facing a team that applies a lot of debuffs. Sure I could use Wiggs...but I could also implement my far less often-used Phasma (modded for speed to use Victory March), along with Yoda (for battle meditation) and 2 DPS toons and a tank to squeeze out a victory with non-meta toons in an effort to save ally points.
3) Perhaps an add-on to the last point, tournaments allow me to use the full depth of my roster. I get to try out fun new comps I would never stick in the arena, and use forgotten-toons (against weak tourney teams).
4) A tie-in to point #1, I love that tourneys use a "near-useless" currency in ally points. Far superior to crystal refreshes for the average player, ally points can only be used for bronziums otherwise. Furthermore, being able to buy ally points in the Galactic War shop will give an edge to those people (like myself and many others) that grind out galactic war each day (because we get the GW currency and can buy AP's). With the introduction of ships in GW shipments, this also gives you a choice of whether you're buying ship shards or AP--another element that will factor into your successes and failures.
I know there's been talk of an overhaul of tourneys, but I just wanted to provide some feedback on an aspect of this game that I really enjoy. My experience has been one finish in the top 1000, one finish in the top 25, a 2nd place finish, and the rest of the tourneys I finished top 100. I would classify the top 100 as a moderate grind, the top 25 as the true definition of the word grind, the top 10 as a massive grind, and the top 5 as a life-consuming grind (for the day). I know that many people can't sink time into tourneys at this rate, so please know that I understand your dissatisfaction.
Perhaps my biggest takeaway is that it's nice to have an element of the game that isn't as much wallet based as it is decision and time based. It will be interesting to see if they scrap tourneys altogether, tweak them or leave them as is; best of luck to everyone regardless of how this turns out!