Time for a Hero!

In addition to the 50/50 sale starting today over at MechWarrior Online, we’re also getting our first official MechWarrior Online Tournament!

It’s officially being called the “Be a Hero Challenge Weekend”  (like Mass Effect 3’s Challenge Weekends), but it’s a tournament (and, good carrot on the stick to get a whole bunch of games going to get ELO data for MatchMaker Phase 3).

Here’s the event details:

Be a Hero Challenge Weekend Event Details:
Starts Friday February 22nd 10:00 PST until Sunday, February 24th 11:59:59 PST.

Are you willing to accept the challenge? Opt-In to have your regular solo scores counted towards 5 unique leaderboard challenges, and see if you are a MechWarrior Champion!

Rules

Players who Opt-In are automatically entered into 5 leaderboard challenges:

  • MechWarrior Champion – Top 3 Global Ranking Scores
  • Light MechWarrior Champion – Top 3 Scores using Light BattleMechs
  • Medium MechWarrior Champion – Top 3 Scores using Medium BattleMechs
  • Heavy MechWarrior Champion – Top 3 Scores using Heavy BattleMechs
  • Assault MechWarrior Champion – Top 3 Scores using Assault BattleMechs

PLEASE NOTE For this particular challenge event, only solo player scores will count towards the leaderboards. Players who are within a group of 2 or more people for any match played during the event, will not have their scores counted towards any leaderboard challenges.

Scoring

For the MechWarrior Champion challenge we are using an aggregate score that rewards players for participating in all 4 leaderboard challenges as follows:

Global Ranking Score = (Total Event Players – Light Rank) + (Total Event Players– Medium Rank) + (Total Event Players – Heavy Rank) + (Total Event Players – Assault Rank)

For the Light, Medium, Heavy, and Assault Champion challenges we are using an aggregate score that weighs Win/Loss Ratio, Kills, Kill Assists, Capture Assists, Spotting Assists, and Games Played.

Standard TOS and EULA are in effect.

Rewards

Winners will be announced on Tuesday February 26, 2013. Confirmed winners for each challenge will received a cockpit banner on March 5th. There are a total of 15 banners to be earned.

The top three scores in each leaderboard challenge will receive:

  • 1st Place – Gold Banner

  • 2nd Place – Silver Banner

  • 3rd Place – Bronze Banner

What I think is really nice about this tournament, is you HAVE to solo drop to be eligible, if you drop grouped, your score for that match (or matches) don’t count towards the tournament.  With the way some groups had been gaming the matchmaker (pre phase 3 implementation) to “pug stomp”, I think this will be a good way for PGI to get some real solo ELO related data (and, to see how bad the “pug stomping” really is).

There are some complaints on the MWO forums, that this is more of an ‘endurance’ event, since the tie-breaker for a given ‘reward’ is number of matches played.  Complaints are the ‘typical’ MMO style complaints about this favoring people with no lives, no family, no job, etc..etc..  However, as someone who has a job, life, family, etc… I still think this is a good idea.  I’ve opted in, and plan to play as many matches as I can (I’m sticking to one weight class, to maximize my chances).  I know I’m not the best at the game, so I hold no illusions about winning..but, I know it’ll be fun…and that’s what’s important.

Are you holding out for a Hero?
Are you holding out for a Hero?

So, are you going to be a Hero this weekend?