I just finished the Hunt and felt that I had been semi competitive and wound up 17th and got two covers for the new character. Then alliance chat pops up and one of my teamates says that he just placed 2nd. I compared notes with him and we both joined slightly after the event started but he joined 1 hour before I did. However he had 2000 points less than I did. And he gets four covers vs my two covers even though I outscored him and we played on almost the exact same schedule.
I’ve always been of the opinion that joining an event just before it ends to try to get a fresh bracket and snipe the top prizes is a terrible mechanic that shouldn’t be part of the game. Seeing that just 60 minutes of difference in joining an event shortly after it starts can make the difference between barely getting into the top 20 or getting the top prize for the event is really demoralizing. It’s bad enough that the token prizes are completely random but now I feel like even my placement in events is random.