To address the problems with players in different time zones, I’d like to suggest the following tourney format:
Epic-length (2 weeks) PVE event with enormous list of progression rewards. Not PVP (no loss of tourney points).
The event should be clearly publicized/teased for a long time in advance so players all around the world will clear their calendars for it.
To force players t-err, to encourage regular participation daily, a limited number of XX temporary boosts of big to enormous power should be made available during a 24-hour period on various days (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, etc.). XX boosts (10?) should be made available for free at the beginning of each of these days. To encourage a variety of play styles/characers, the boosts could have very specific bonuses tailored to favor certain characters (i.e. “Use this boost to double the damage bonus of any strike tiles you own for this round only,” or “Use this boost to reduce any countdown tiles you own to 0 for this round only,” or “Use this boost to double the health of any X-Men on your team for this round only.”) After 24 hours, if not used, the boosts wink out of existence or get grayed out until the next day they’re offered. Consider selling additional boosts for HP ala Heroic Venom if preferred.
Also, YY character(s) should receive buffs during the event on days alternating with the massive boosts. i.e. if Tue/Thu/Sat are the big boost days, Mon/Wed/Fri would be the buff days. I assume D3P would want to buff different characters to promote certain usage patterns/upsell certain hero packs, which is fine. Given that this event would be so long in duration I could see this cycling through the whole roster, which might actually be a good thing. If there are juicy progression awards waiting at the next tier, but players have to get through insanely high-level Maggia or HAMMER troops to get them, who knows? People might start upgrading their Bag-Man in droves ![]()
If possible, I would limit the buffs to only XX number of rounds (e.g. today, Magneto will get a 250% buff for 10 rounds only); but I’m not sure how hard this would be to implement. ![]()
(ducks bricks being thrown at him by programmers)
My suggestion about the boosts and buffs being limited to a finite number is to try to offer an equitable experience to all players in all time zones, who may not be able to play at exactly 11:59PM EST on any given Friday, but can hopefully play at some point in the day on that Friday. By logging in sometime within each day’s 24-hour period, anyone in any time zone should hopefully be able to take advantage of their 10 buffed matches or 10 boosts for that particular 24-hour period, and hopefully, after using them up, will feel satisfied with today’s game session and ready to come back for tomorrow’s buffs or boosts. (And should they feel like they’re on hot streak, maybe they pay more HP for the “heroic” boosts, who knows. ![]()
) Basically, everyone gets their allotted boosted/buffed rounds for the day, everyone gets to go on a massively satisfying rampage where their team is fantastically OP (in a PVE setting, mind you), and hopefully everyone feels like they’ve had a fair shake, regardless of schedule.
I suggest this as a longer-term tournament format to allow players enough time to participate and really grind to rewards, which I could see going up to, and beyond, 3000-4000 progression points, where the goal is clearly not placing, but rather, on grinding out progression to the highest tiers.