I played both events competitively. In ETOS, I finished 3rd behind two WaG mercs. In Venom Bomb, 3rd behind behind a Dark Matter grinder and another optimal player. Of note, the rest of my Venom Bomb bracket included a 5* crewsader and several other strong grinders (for some reason it feels like I always get put into the death grinders brackets).
ETOS was longer but easier. Longer in the sense that you had to be able to play both the end grind and the starting grind. Easier in the sense that the grind didn’t have to be optimal. You could take a break to let hp regen etc… After the 1st sub, I specifically decided not to buy or fish for hp (and overall I didn’t feel pressured to buy healthpacks to keep up). As mentioned by many people, the scaling was off the chart. Nodes were hard enough that deciding to retreat was actually a viable strategy. (Speficially, if you knew you weren’t going to get the IM40 battery charged in time, better to lose 1/3 health than let kishu go nuts and wipe the entire team). I would love it if they started the clock after 3 hits and collapsed value to 20 after 4 more. 7 plays per node is perfect. Scaling for non goon nodes was actually appropriate for my roster. The problem with goons is that after a certain point, they spam more CD than you can handle. Hand ninjas are bad but so is sniper and every other goon type (I think sniper and kishu are actually 4* level goons).
Venom Bomb was easy and stressful. Easy in the sense that 95% percent of the nodes were trivial to beat. (I have a near 5* roster) But stressful in the sense that I’m competing against elite players with rosters as good as or better than my roster. Sub scores between the players differed by less than 100 pts (and I’d remind you that the 6th hit on the essential node was generally worth around 100 pts). In fact, the entire event was effectively decided in 1 node. The infamous Venom Carnage Simbiote node in sub 3. But for 4*+ rosters, it was never an issue of whether we can beat that node (of course we can). What happened is that the goon started buffing special tiles and after every move, it was close to 40 secs of blinking flashing lights. At that level of play, the players have setup their end grinds with less than 5 min to spare. Getting caught up in a match that takes double the estimated time can basically cripple scoring against another optimal grinder.
The scores from that sub reflect that reality. the 5* player with championed OML Rhulk couldn’t finishup grinding the last nodes and dropped 400 pts. Number 2 (with champed 5*) also didn’t have a perfect finish but got 1 or 2 more nodes done. and so forth down the line. I gave my self an extra 10 min, which helped, but I also got an epiletic fit on that node and could not complete the grind to 1.
One thing I saw that I didn’t fully appreciate is that having a fully covered 5* means you can do a full grind in around 1hr 45 min. Thats a pretty astounding advantage and you consider that in light of how much time it takes you the reader to compete a final grind. Overall, to beat a 5* roster, you must time your final grind within 5 min and put him under enough scoring pressure that he makes a mistake and doesn’t compete his grind to 1. (players at that level always goto 1)
Overall, I really liked the competition in venom bomb. Playing strong competitors improves my play and makes the game fun. I also appreciated the fact that avg clears were 20min (by all the top 10 players) and that final grinds were avg two hours (IMHO this is an appropriate and reasonable time spent on gameplay). What I didn’t like is that optimal play is essentially perfected. ETOS was more interesting and fun because there were lots of ways to try and improve play.
Forcing players to make decisions with consequences is good for the game and competition in general. When people can play on autopilot, the game gets stale and its time to find some kids to do the grinding for you.