I hate to complain (no really, I do 
) but over time, I’m finding the lightning rounds less appealing.
I get that they’re supposed to call out how cool and awesome the villains are to make people want to buy tokens to unlock them.
However, I don’t think the way they current work is encouraging this.
1.) Getting stuck with a mandatory crappy level 15 version of the character is not really a great way to upsell how powerful and awesome it is.
2.) Buffing only the villain itself has had a “the rich get richer” effect where high-level Dooms and Hoods are cleaning up with the massive buffs, while those who don’t have any covers are stuck with crappy level-15 versions that make it very hard to place (and get covers for those characters). It’s like, how am I supposed to place in the Doom tourney to earn some Doom covers when players with level 100+ Dooms are completely destroying me?
I don’t even think it’s a bad thing that players who invested the time and effort to develop these villain characters get to go on a rampage. I’m sure it must be great fun for them and I don’t want to take away anybody’s fun.
I also understand that at the end of the day, D3P wants players to support the game by purchasing heroic tokens or lightning token packs, but this setup is having the net effect of simply making the tournaments less appealing for me at all. (I can only speak for myself, obviously).
To make the lightning rounds more appealing, I have 2 suggestions:
1.) I suggest buffing up the minimum level of the "crappy default version you use if you don’t have this character) to something higher (25? 30? 40?), and give it at least 1-2 covers in each color/ability so that players can really experience the villain and its abilities. It’s hard to get excited about a level 15 C. Magneto who only has his blue. It would be a lot easier to get excited about a level 30 Magnus that has 2-3 slots in all 3 colors. Once people try and get hooked on the characters’ real potential, I think they’ll be more likely to convert to paying customers…like League of Legends’ free weekly hero rotation, which this game is obviously emulating here anyway.
2.) I suggest also buffing up, possibly to a lower extent, one or more random hero character(s) for these tournaments to help players who don’t already own Doom/Hood to get excited about competing and possibly placing. To justify this from a game fiction standpoint, the random hero could be considered either a “rival” for this particular round, or perhaps having just taken out a bounty on the villain’s head. i.e, “INTRODUCING DOOM LIGHTNING ROUND 2.0 TOURNEY-STRAVAGANZA! DOOM IS BUFFED 200%, AND FOR THIS ROUND, HIS HEROIC RIVAL [insert random hero here, like 2-star Wolverine or Iron Man Model 40] HAS BEEN BUFFED TO 150% TO [DEAL WITH THIS SPINE-TINGLING NEW THREAT / COLLECT THE BOUNTY ON DOOM’S HEAD]! CALL NOW! OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY!”
