Since you can only champion a max-leveled character, doesn’t this mean that maxing characters is more important than ever?
Given that, doesn’t this make the massive ISO shortage an even bigger issue? All those 4* covers that you thought you were going to champion… hope you’ve leveled everyone to 270 first!!!
If you can’t use the covers on a champion, you sell them like you do now. If you can, it looks like the rewards you’ll earn along the way will more than make up for the entry fee, and will make extra covers much more valuable.
Now I have a good reason to go for the 3* progression and placement rewards, as they’ll pay off quickly and in the long run will net me more 4* covers.
Sorry, perhaps I should rephrase:
I expect that the total amount of ISO in our pockets will be roughly the same, perhaps even a little better once a few rewards are earned.
I expect that this will magnify the fact that we do not have enough ISO in our pockets. It will be absolutely terrible having to sell a 4* cover for 1K ISO instead of putting it into the character because you only have him at level 200, but max covered.
Most likely I’ll only start championing 2* and 3* toons, just so my scaling in PvE won’t be so screwed up… and since I have those I want championed already at 94 & 166. 
After all, a Level 144 Ares and OBW will be a force to be reckoned with! (jk, maybe?)
4* will have to take a backseat.
Not even gonna start thinking about 5*. 
Why yes, yes it does.
You only need a “little” iso to champion them.
But you need everyone maxed. Very few even max all 3*'s due to ISO costs, and 4*'s are outrageous to level…if you have the covers, maybe you can level one every season? Except of course they release TWO every season…
I guess it’s opportunity cost. We can probably champion all of our 2s, and a good number of our 3. We definitely can’t champion many 4s, so we have to pick and choose carefully who we’re going to level max and champion. If you pull a dupe cover on a desirable 4 whom you haven’t level maxed, it’s because you’ve chosen to max someone else instead. In that case, the dupe cover gets sold like it used to be sold.
I don’t really want to bring up whaling, since it’s entirely a person’s prerogative whether they choose to spend inordinately large amounts of cash setting everyone up as a champion or not. It also doesn’t solve your other legitimate issue of “random sucks as a means of progression”, when you can’t cover max a desirable character because you keep on pulling the wrong dupes.
ISO shortage?
haha pitiful human.
Man If only we all lived in this screenshot.
I am not excited by this feature as it is now. I won’t have iso to level any of my 4* to max (I would have to spend all I have to do it with one). So i will have to sell all the duplicate covers anyway.
In terms of 3* - I have some maxed and they will be championed as I go. But some others still miss levels as I don’t play them often now. So I will have to make a call - use thousands of iso to bring them to max or sell covers. Regretfully - probably sell covers.
And 2*? I don’t care about them. I only have 4 and I will champion them all but I won’t add any new ones. Too much iso and hp for the slots.
One solution (if you can’t add a 0 at the end of all iso rewards) would be to remove the timer on the covers. If they would not expire I would not have to regret opening tokens.
are rewards random or set or is it like daily supply with some of both? if it is set we can map out cost/benefit break points versus selling or championing
Honestly, this would be infinitely more attractive if the requirement for championing a character was being max COVERED, not max leveled. You wouldn’t want to go using those extra covers to level the character up until they’re already high enough to be very expensive anyway, it STILL wouldn’t make it super easy but would certainly take some of the sting out of the astronomical cost of fully leveling even a 3* roster (not to mention a massive benefit for those later 4* levels every once in a while) and would right away entice a whole lot more people to be making use of it. As it stands right now, as usual, the only people this actually benefits are those who really don’t need the help.
Unless of course the bonuses for slotting those champion levels is a lot more impressive than it currently sounds. Very much interested in the actual math we’re looking at here, but it sure doesn’t sound like a net benefit for most of us.
This. It will only slow down transition to 4* land for 3* players. They will fight stronger opponents so they will not get better rewards. With iso shortage most 3* and 4* won’t be championed.
The players who already have maxed 4* will be only real beneficiaries - they will be happy again to open Legendary tokens as for them there is no more duplicate covers - there are only extra levels for heroes they already have.
I don’t have any 4* max leveled (and only one max covered). I takes too much iso so I am not rushing head first into the 270 lvl scaling. That means that i will frequently regret opening legendaries. I will see duplicates that I have to sell 
Even the two covers for my max covered Thoress will be gone as I won’t come up with 200k iso to level her (and she is not top tier anymore so it would not be very helpful for my gameplay). Timer on covers has to go!
The thing is, this mechanic is a method to prevent people from soft capping their rosters, which is also very attractive.
Yup. What this does for me (and I think a lot of other players as well) is makes my 2* covers useful again.
We won’t know for sure until the feature goes live, but I’m envisioning 2* covers to be a way for me to farm ISO to support maxing my 4* roster. I currently have 7 maxed 2s, 13 maxed 3s and only 3 maxed 4s. But I’ve got at least two 4 characters cover maxed that need a total of about 600k ISO to bring up to 270. While I won’t be able to use any additional covers for those characters yet, I will still benefit from championing with the 2* covers (and many 3* covers as well) that I get.
I also have a couple 3*s that are maxed and sitting at level 140 or so - not sure if it will be worth it to go ahead and take them to 166 to benefit from championing or not. Will have to look at the rewards table to see how long (if ever) it would take to make back the 80k ISO I need for each one. My guess is that this won’t make sense, but you never know.
I think one may need to think a bit differently now.
When giving advice to new players, one of the big ones is “don’t open tokens unless you have the HP for a new roster spot”.
Going forward, it will be “don’t open tokens unless you can spare the ISO to pay the Champion fee”…
Looking over the guys I may want to Champion immediately made me realize I have about half about what I would need for the first stage alone, so I probably won’t go crazy championing people left and right… But we’ll see.
They are set. And differs from character to character. For example at some point cmags will give you professorX cover, and 3* ironman will give you hulkbuster cover.
So 2* mostly give you ISO/HP + heroic tokens, 3* give you more HP/ISO/CP and 4* covers, 4* give you even more ISO/HP/CP and LTs, 5* give insane amount of HP/ISO/CP + LTs
Well at day 805 things turned around.
I now would like to give away some hp for iso instead of the opposite.
I suspect lightning rounds today will be very crowdy
That is essentially my plan, to champion my 2s (looking at obw, cstorm, daken) and 3s (if, cage, laken, patch, hood).
Not for me! This is hands down THE most positive change the game has ever made for my OCD roster. I have all the 2s at lvl 94 (except Bagman (4/4/5, lvl 15), who I will level if the champ-progs are worth it). I have all 40 3s at level 166. I have some top tier 4*s at lvl 270. And I have 300,000 ISO in the bank to bankroll my first round of Champions. This change is tailor made for a player like me, I’m chomping at the bit for it to go live!
I had the same thought as the OP.
As I’m finally leveling up 4s and grinding like a mother to get all the iso I can, now there’s going to be another way to lose it with unclear benefits… and meanwhile my 4s won’t get to max level to then possibly champion them… for more iso…
It will absolutely excacerbate Iso-flow issues. But that’s not inherently a problem - you’ll need to make real choices about who you’re going to level. If you’re not going to max them before the cover expires, sell it. Remember, not every character is going to be worth turning into a champion. I’ll use myself as an example. For background, I’m a 4* player with IMHB and JG at 270, XWolvie and Carnage at 255, and a number of others max covered at levels ranging from 166 to 245. I have all the 3*s at various levels between 127 and 166, currently I have 23 at 166. I currently have about 230k Iso - that’s actually pretty normal for me as I generally hover between 150 and 250k Iso.
Any 3* at 166 I have cover for I may as well just plain Champion - the 7500 Iso is trivial compared to the progression rewards.
I am sitting on one IMHB cover, so that’s a no-brainer too.
I have one Carnage cover that will expire in 4 days. It will cost me 60k to bring him up to 270. He’s good, but not great in PVP. I think I’m going to do it, I’ll make my mind up when I see the 4* champion rewards from IMHB.
I have four Human Torch (classic) covers, and he’s one of my 3*s at 153. That’s 30k to level to 166. I’m strongly leaning toward maxing him, again the rewards are good enough to justify the cost.
I have one Gamora cover and she’s also a 153. I think that’s a miss this time, she’d be actually cool to be able to respec at will, but I suspect I just won’t have the spare Iso for just one cover. Sorry Gammy. You’ll get your turn someday.
I have one Nick Fury cover - he’s at 166. Though leveling him would make his 4* DDQ easier, and it would be awesome to respec him (he’s at 5/4/4, I just can’t seem to find that last blue,) it would cost over 300k to max him and I just plain don’t use him enough to justify the Iso, even if I had it. Not this time, Director. I’ll level him incrementally when I can afford it, maybe next time. Maybe not, though.
I’ll get an Eletrka cover from tomorrow’s Resupply. She’s max-covered (even ideal at 5/5/3,) at level 175. Nuh-uh. I don’t have the Iso to waste on bringing her to 270. This is Natchios the champion for me, not unless I really find a use for her.
I’ll probably open my other tokens, but I think I’m going to hold off on Legendaries until I rebuild my Iso store - if KP (level 190,) or Goddess Thor (level 245) came up and I didn’t have the Iso to max them, I think I’d have some tough choices.