Where do all those people come from to inflate the tournaments? Yesterday the Weekender had only ~200 entrants and suddenly the number jumped to 1000. Similarily Jackpot Factory $25k had 500 entrants and suddenly the number jumped to 3000 just when the tournament started.
It seems that a huge number of players receive free entry to the tournament without having to pay or play at the feeders. It isn't an even playing field for those who take the effort to enter through the feeders because the competition level is very different for 1000 players versus 200 players who actually earned their way to the weekender.
Spot on! I regularly receive free entry to the weekender from Jackpot Factory, and as this is an MG platform tournament, I expect many other casinos do this. They probably choose to give the free passes to players who regularly play out all the continues, but then stop playing for a bit.
It seems they are changing the current "experimental" setup daily, so maybe they ARE listening to the feedback they are getting.
Tomb Raider seemed so boring for the weekender, it seemed impossible to beat the low variance and get anywhere, except for the few that got those rare hits. Loaded is better in this respect, and also is a better game for the rebuy model, as a poor start would encourage a rebuy, rather than running through the continues.
They could well be dishing out LOADS of free entries to ensure a good starting field for this new setup.
It would be far better to address all the BUGS that have crept into the tournament software since it first launched. It used to play slow, but that was FAST compared to the snail's pace we get now. There is no excitement, only STRESS when you are playing against the clock, and know DAMN WELL how fast the game SHOULD run because you have played in the casino, yet cannot achieve even a TENTH of this when playing it in tournament mode (not even with the latest PC upgrades).
The other irritation is that PLAYERS do not benefit from ANY of the funds being thrown into the continues and rebuys, in other words, the RTP of rebuys is 0%. Would you play at a casino game with a 100% House edge?
I worked out that the RTP of the weekender could be less than 50% under the old model (when 500 or so players were still interested in it), but I wonder what it might be now after these changes. There is no way to know, as the amount invested in paid entries, rebuys, and continues is a secret, all we see is the prize pool.