
We’ve been closely analyzing system performance and player progression after the changes made to Tournaments. Your feedback has highlighted matchmaking as a key issue and a significant source of frustration for many of you.
In our upcoming update, we'll introduce foundational adjustments to the Tournament system, specifically to how you progress through the lower Ranks. We’ll also be balancing the rewards available. To explain what is changing, why it’s happening, and how we’re hoping to address your feedback, we have prepared a deep dive.
Check out the breakdown below, and please continue sharing your thoughts with us.
Before we talk about the future, we want to take a step back and look at where we started. When we launched the reworked Tournament system, our goal was to address some major systemic issues with the old format.
In the past, veteran players could leverage the matchmaking system by adjusting their Squad Power (SP) to get easy, unfair wins against beginners. Additionally, the old 20-player brackets heavily rewarded extended playtime, meaning someone could easily pull ahead in the standings simply by being able to play more often or being in a favorable time zone.
By introducing the 8-Battle limit and the new Tournament Ranking Points (TRP) system, we addressed those core pain points. However, as with any system overhaul, new challenges emerged. While Season 1 succeeded in shifting the focus to match quality, it also revealed that our current progression pacing and reward balance were off.
While we saw a lot of appreciation for the inaugural season of the new system, your feedback has helped us see that the new matchmaking algorithm needs more work. Here is what we found, and how we are fixing it.
Currently, early-Rank Battles are too forgiving. While winning easily feels great initially, it creates a massive "slingshot" effect. Players are earning immense amounts of TRP and rocketing straight into the Master or Grandmaster Ranks before their Hangars are truly ready.
The result is exactly what many of you have reported: you arrive in the higher Ranks with an underdeveloped Hangar (e.g., 6k SP) and suddenly hit a wall. You are matched against 20k SP veterans who have the same TRP as you, resulting in Battles that feel impossible.
To fix the "slingshot" effect, we are making a direct gameplay adjustment:
Smarter bots will act as a genuine test, requiring you to think critically, manage cooldowns, and improve your tactical approach. This will stop the inflated win rates, ensuring you progress at a natural pace based on your skills and aren't boosted into Ranks before you’re ready for the challenge.
Alongside the matchmaking adjustments, we also need to address Tournament rewards.
Let’s be completely blunt: when we launched the new Tournament system, we made a miscalculation regarding the reward payouts. Season 1 saw a massive increase in A-Coin income compared to the old tournaments.
While we love rewarding our players, keeping rewards at our inaugural peak isn't sustainable for the long-term health and balance of Mech Arena. To correct this, we’re making an adjustment:
❗Please note: to ensure fairness across all modes, A-Coin rewards in Free-For-All will be awarded to the Top 5 players. While only the Top 3 are traditionally considered winners, this adjustment ensures reward consistency with team-based modes.
We know that seeing reductions isn't fun, but we want to highlight a crucial point: Even with these changes, you will still earn several times more A-Coins than the old Tournament system. So the new system remains more rewarding than the old one; we are simply bringing it down from an inaugural spike to a healthy baseline.
We want to be completely upfront about what these two changes mean for you. Early progression will slow down, and your early rank A-Coin earnings will be lower than they were in Season 1 (though, again, still much higher than the old system).
These are two distinct but necessary changes: the smarter bots will improve the matchmaking experience and stop the frustrating Grandmaster "wall," while the A-Coin rebalance corrects a miscalculation to ensure the game economy remains balanced.
This was the very first season of the Tournament update, and a brand-new system does not become perfect overnight; it needs a few more seasons to gather data, let the Ranks settle, and sort everyone into their ideal SP ranges.
We are treating these adjustments as the next step in tuning the system, not the final destination. We are committed to continuous improvements. We will actively monitor player progression, the algorithm's performance, and the economy in the coming seasons to ensure they function properly.
We'll have a dedicated feedback channel in our Official Discord once the update goes live. Let us know how the pacing feels, how the bots are behaving, and where the challenges are.
Thank you for your passion, your honesty, and for helping us shape the future of the Arena.
The proposed revisions to the tournament will reduce participation rates.
My hanger strength: 6.5k ,sp 23k, years played: just over one, activity: daily
Last tournament finally bracket result: Master II, started in professional one I think
I found the new tournament fun and engaging. I was able to play more often than not, with a teams that could consited of more players than bots.
1. I thought the bot difficulty was fine. Increasing bot difficulty will lower participation rates of new players who will lose more. When players are not getting rewarded with acoins for loses in earlier ranks, it will likely discourage players from participating. Big spenders will be rewarded, ftp or small spenders may not participate.
Fix: I would suggest leaving acoin rewards alone earlier on because it is a small amount and helps new players. Win/Lose players lower rank players should get acoins to help them develop. It would help with player retention and pull new players in. As these players grow, they are more likely to spend real money. Remember, the tournament feedback was likely from long time players not new ones who have yet invested in the game ecosystem.
2. GrandMasters should receive acoins for winning not losing. The boy dfficulty should be increase. The acoins reward pool should be much higher
3. Lastly, let's not forget that some of us spent a ton of time building up resources and spending them on upgrades to only have a patch come out and lower the prices of everything besides legendary by up to 75 percent off. I'm still bitter her the time I spent unlocking tiers was wasted when everything now is much cheaper.
Secondly, I spent money on both eclipse and revokers, only to have them nerfed to oblivion. Balance is important, but when people spend money on items only to have them nerfed multiple times, it is a intentional devaluation of the original purchase. There could have been compensation by Plarium to make up for it.
Thanks and good luck
Dear Dev .. I'm really apreciating for all you've done make this game is more fair and comfortable to be played .. but I think the original problem in this game is imbalancing of the player power .. like in the game the f2p player who launch 3 epic and 2 rare mech with 5 epic gun meet player who had 2 or 3 mech legendary mechs with 3 legendary weapons .. offcourse it will be a carnage, slaughtion, and massacre ..
I think the simply ones to adjust is make the player facing the equal enemy for their fight off .. in mech and gun ..
One thing more .. I'm a 2022 player .. I've been out from this game because this case too in that time .. the worst case in that time is I meet player who can kill just by touching enemy in 1 time by just cheapest beam weapon ..
The things I dont like too is .. Me and the else old player who came back to play this game is dont got acces to use promo codes which can used by new player .. so we just can survive with strugling facing the most player who had legendary mech, weapons, and pilot .. its not fair ..
My nick name is : STR41GHT
ID : 12863224
Thanks for your attention ..
So that means you were actually making the game better by giving us more a coins hitting y'all in the pockets way toooo much? obviously it's about the $$$ and the excuse that we level up too quickly is hilarious. I thought you guys finally cared about the average player who can't spend 30 dollars a week on the game. Checks out...
I'm already having a headache playing this game, unfair match making, been forced to play with dump players, etc. And a lot of bugs. And now you decided to make this game way wrost. If I'm not having any A-coins because of your dump stupid rules, i will crash out. You gaslight on most of the things and act like "everything we do is f2p and perfect". Do what actually people want and not what you want, because we are the ones playing.
I’ll pass your feedback to the team. If you can share a bit more detail about what feels most unfair or which bugs you’re running into, it would really help.
Thanks for speaking up even when it’s frustrating.
I have my criticisms of tournaments.
The Grandmaster rank should have meaning. As a veteran player, I find the proposed logic for rank progression fundamentally flawed.
Rank should reflect power and rating. I believe matchmaking against players should be based primarily on rank. It's fair that a player with 5,000 SP should face players with 20,000 SP if they share the same rank. How did you get to the maximum rank with 4,000 SP? How did you end up at Grandmaster 1? If you're Grandmaster 1, it's fair to be matched with other Grandmaster 1s or other players within a +/- 2 rank margin, regardless of the hangar's power. Otherwise, what's the point of the "Grandmaster" title if it includes both 2,000 SP and 20,000 SP players who never meet? It seems like a mockery of the progress veterans have made. Higher ranks should be reserved for those with the hangars and experience to conquer them, not a separate "skill-based" lane for players of different levels.
Your solution is to increase bot intelligence to test skill, but you don't address the problem of Hangar inadequacy. If a player with 2,000 SP learns the AI patterns and plays efficiently, they'll still reach Grandmaster rank and expect to face bots optimized for their Hangar—spoiler: it's weak.
By prioritizing intelligence over raw power requirements, you're essentially allowing low-SP players to occupy the same elite ranks as veterans without ever facing the same difficulty level. This doesn't eliminate the "wall"; it just creates a glass ceiling that shields low-power players from the reality of late-game.
This solution of yours takes me back to the "SP drop" era.
By focusing on "rating" and "skill" rather than rigid Hangar-based rank brackets (as in Hangar Showdown) for the highest ranks, you're inadvertently returning to the problems of the old system. We're seeing a return to a meta where players manipulate their SP or exploit matchmaking logic to find easier paths to the top.
Grandmaster rank should be reserved for elite hangars. If a player's hangar is "underdeveloped," they shouldn't simply be facing weaker, "smarter" bots; they should reach a point where they can no longer compete until they upgrade their hangar. Let's stop trying to balance the top ranks for everyone; let's keep high-level rewards for high-level players only.
Thanks for taking the time to lay this out.
We’re definitely not trying to devalue progression or bring back the old SP issues. I see your point about the inconsistency this can create for veterans who’ve built strong hangars specifically to compete at the top end. I’ll pass this on to the team.
Hi mech arena pls do update to trade with players
Thanks for your suggestion. What’s the main reason you feel player-to-player trading is needed in Mech Arena?
Is it more about helping newer players, managing extra resources, or something like giving more flexibility with progression?
Reduced a coin rewards?! Have you SEEN the prices for stuff that cost a coins? It cost 1,860 just to get a panther, which I may remind you is weak, they don't have much health they are not worth it, and they are expensive, it took me a month just to get 1,000 a coins, this doesn't help at all!
There’s a lot of feedback here, and that’s a good thing. It shows that you care about the game and not just how it feels right now, but where it’s going.
Even when the feedback is negative, it’s still important. It helps us understand what’s not working, where the frustration is coming from, and what we need to focus on improving.
I hear what you’re saying. We’ve been going through everything you’ve shared and passing it along to the team.
Everything we’re working on is for you as players. We want the game to feel enjoyable and fair to play. At the same time, we know not everything is landing the way it should right now, and that’s exactly why conversations like this matter.
Tournaments are still in an early stage in their current form, so we’re continuing to watch how things play out and where adjustments are needed.
Thanks again for taking the time to speak up. It really does make a difference.
There’s a lot of feedback here, and that’s a good thing. It shows that you care about the game and not just how it feels right now, but where it’s going.
Even when the feedback is negative, it’s still important. It helps us understand what’s not working, where the frustration is coming from, and what we need to focus on improving.
I hear what you’re saying. We’ve been going through everything you’ve shared and passing it along to the team.
Everything we’re working on is for you as players. We want the game to feel enjoyable and fair to play. At the same time, we know not everything is landing the way it should right now, and that’s exactly why conversations like this matter.
Tournaments are still in an early stage in their current form, so we’re continuing to watch how things play out and where adjustments are needed.
Thanks again for taking the time to speak up. It really does make a difference.
there is a lot of feedback here because this is where feedback is accessible and should be based for everyone and not on places like discord where most of us will not be, because lets be honest, who is using discord? i dont really know anyone. I joined it for rewads that I never received but it's not where I would voice my opinion. If you ran away from us, doesnt mean we will come chasing you and beg you for changes. Keep making decisions with your little circle of special people providing feedback that majority does not agree on.
The negative feedback is the only good feedback, something for you to think about what would actually make people happy, attract new people and make existing players stay.
I really don't mind your changes, like you said yourself, its better rewarding than old tournament, I will still be happy with it rewardwise. But as others said above, no need to compare it to something that was deep trash to make this "new tournament" shine in better light.
The one thing you will really accomplish with these changes, you will lose people and we will again be playing with 8 stupid bots every battle that you will also "make smarter", by adding extra legendary mods, implants and guns, because that is the only smartness they can get from you, - NONE. And I hope you will feel lost sales within just a month or two because there will be nothing interesting left in this game, but of course you will never link it to your decision, blame the summer weather. I am losing my interest to play with bots, it's not fun, giving them gemini 16 instead of gemini 8 will be even less fun for me.
Like others said above, I have no idea where you getting your feedback from, I'm not the one of the moaning players, I like the challenge, less rewards don't scare me, I'm scared of the big picture where tournaments are full of bots because that is what I see clearly. I have no idea how losing lot of players will heal the game economics for you.
If i was competing against real people all the time, I might have had some stimulation to consider to buy a new robot for real money, because I have money, but I will certainly never do it to compete with bots, and that is what you get just awfully 100% wrong about your economics, removing rewards for loses will remove players. Removing players will add bots. Adding bots is an utter crappy idea that will make you lose sales. Who needs to buy robots or guns to show off in front of bots?!??!?!? Are you mad??
You want people to buy skins? Make less bots and more real players, no idiot in the world will be buying skin to show it to the bot. Bots dont care. And if you change their names every 3 days does not make any difference, we all know that we played with bots, or do you think everyone is stupid?? You can trick new people for a month, and then oh wow what a wonder, he stopped spening!? he figured you out, nobody wants to play with bots here!!!!!
You just announced something that was literally between the lines saying: "you will get less rewards and tournaments will be full of bots again and the bots will be stronger"
I would share what needs to be changed to improve your economics, but you dont really care, we share it here every day, nobody is reading, you decided to retreat into discord where nobody can find you.
Thumbs down. Good luck.
There’s a lot of feedback here, and that’s a good thing. It shows that you care about the game and not just how it feels right now, but where it’s going.
Even when the feedback is negative, it’s still important. It helps us understand what’s not working, where the frustration is coming from, and what we need to focus on improving.
I hear what you’re saying. We’ve been going through everything you’ve shared and passing it along to the team.
Everything we’re working on is for you as players. We want the game to feel enjoyable and fair to play. At the same time, we know not everything is landing the way it should right now, and that’s exactly why conversations like this matter.
Tournaments are still in an early stage in their current form, so we’re continuing to watch how things play out and where adjustments are needed.
Thanks again for taking the time to speak up. It really does make a difference.
Who thought players were making too many a-coins with the new tournaments. Do you have any idea how much it costs to build a solid set of mechs and weapons?