Im in league 2 and its possibly my favorite game mode. I didnt like it at the start at all, but my perception changed. 

Bots are unbelievable idiots, you can avoid playing with bots if you press cancel at around 32 seconds of waiting, and then start again. This although depends on your region, in UK I rarely have any issues to get 4 players, i noticed the most difficult days are weekends mornings/afternoons.. And if i forget about 32 seconds rule while waiting then the bots are added at about 42 seconds for me. 

Other regions are very different story though, people like NightFury live somewhere around North Pole in a shiny igloo, they can only play with bots, there is purely no choice there.. He says he even prefers it.

And the bots itself is a separate story, i recently played with Deathwalker on my side, i was Salvor and watching my bot engage with enemies, i was giving him healing just about enough for him to keep battling while his ability was still active. What do you think happened next? His ability was active, he is barely alive, enemy right next to him actively smashing his ass, he suddenly starts retreating and ran away from enemies with barely any health while ability still active. Next thing they catch him when ability rans out and he dies :) great logic.. 

Aegises put their shields and coming out of the shields to fight enemies.. Or completely forget about having any ability.

Salvors who either go full mad healing everyone or sometimes for unknown reason dont heal anyone at all even if you right next to him dying. 

Its just torture to play with bots.. 

Matchmaking is not ideal but when everyone is maxed out it doesnt matter too much unless your ally is not playing or if he is using 3 mechs like Ares juggernaut and slingshot. i can understand lancer because its jumping, paragon because it can carry 2*16 weapons.. zypher or guardian because their abilities are very valuable, killshot is realistic.. orion good mech.. etc.. but ideally all legendary mechs should be playing.. with only 1 common/uncommon.. at least use epic. i had aegis forever and it was often killer of both enemies. 

I enjoy HS mode a lot, and in my region there's very little possibility of bots taking over a match. It sometimes happen in off-peak hours (like at midnight or at early morning, some ungodly time to play Mech Arena tbh)

I'm happy to play with bots (only at CPC matches) cuz I can expect the same level of stupidity at both sides (there are exceptions, when opponent bots become crazy smart)

League 1 as endgame as you can imagine.

The most important aspect is your map/weapon knowledge and maximising your odds which thankfully doesn't require P2W hangars like other gamemodes. A blizzfrost, surge, Redox etc. ability can cover almost a third of the smallest map which many players could get Surge for free (Edit: with radius implants).

Bots can be instant losses, which the problem isn't their builds but the variance bewteen a killshot versus an Outlaw with seasonal modifiers.

Overall though it's the only gamemode I play, very rewarding when I play evenly skilled players/content creators.

I have a mixed experience. I have mostly 4-star mechs and a few 5-star mechs, so I have the option of league 3 and league 2. But probably because of my region and play timings, when playing league 2 I'm often at the bottom rung of the league (in terms of stars) while my opponents are often purple star mech players. 

So I downgraded to league 3 and was surprised to see that most players in league 3 are actually similar to me in terms of gear (4 star legendary mechs for the most part). My experience here has been good for the most part. I get totally wrecked many times but I also manage to win a few times, so it's a fun mode for me, and some of the best "I wish I had recorded that" plays happen in this mode (both from my side and my opponents).

Side note: I feel bad that new players with less strong gear, who ideally should have been at league 3, are forced to play in league 4.. just as I am forced to play in league 3 for now. But that's because Plarium changed the star ranges a while ago. Most of the people playing in league 3 these days would be in league 2 in the older system (including me).

I'm going to borrow our mod NF's pic for my thoughts on HS:

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Remove it seeing as its a huge pay 2 win advantage 

I hate showdown 😅 I'm an end game player, all maxed everything and showdown is just stupid for us, it can be good sometimes when it's just a 1 vs 1 and we both have bot teammates, I can win most of those matches or it can be close and draw or sometimes I lose if I play stupidly, 

but 99% of every loss I get is because I'm teamed with a low hanger player with 5 and 6 star mech, with weak 10 power weapons, plus they rush forward on their own trying to fight two top end game player opponents, even when I spam the cover me emoji they don't listen, it wrecks my head because then I'm left on my own to fight two top players, I just leave after the second round when that happens, which is becoming a lot lately, 

league one really needs to be 35 stars, it's a league where all 20k plus hangers play, so no one with an 11k hanger of 5 star mech should be anywhere near league one 😑 

I'd pass the additional feedback regarding HS to the team as we await quick and helpful fixes 😓

My experience with HS has been nothing but misery. But I have like 2 legendary mechs. League 3

They do the matchmaking based off the completely meaningless metric of mech stars. And the idiot devs still won't change it or even acknowledge the problem

I agree mech stars is one of the worst decisions they've made allowing maxed Paragons against maxed Deathwalkers, but we can still be respectful towards them about it if you actually want to be heard and they've certianly done a lot the past few months to be completely fair.

We would've had only 10 matches a day if people including myself didn't provide honest respectful feedback regarding free play. Don't get me wrong though I've had my fair share of opinions how they even green lit a few features but I'd never insult them.

[Unimaginative Rant ON]

HS is still in [BETA]. It will always be in [BETA]. Should change it to [ALPHA]. 

Tournament in it's current form should be in [BETA]. Maybe even [ALPHA]. Or, what's before [ALPHA]?

[Unimaginative Rant OFF]

[Time to get more COFFEE]

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I like it because it makes many fights depend more on skill instead of who has the better mechs.i also like how the eward system works. 

However on the other hand its usually (from what i've been playing.) rather bad because its also luck focused. If you pick the wrong mech you WILL end up in a bad situation, and when that isn't the issue, the issue will be that some mechs just aren't good for this game made and make it either hard for you or easy for you to win.

In general i think it should've been a 3 versus 3 game mode, but that is just my opinion.

Edit: i have sadly stopped playing it since it has gotten too annoying to play. 

I hate HA! Much like the rest of the game, its a big bag of SHIT!

League 1, I like it a lot. Used to hate it. Used to lose a lot, now I win enough to score the good mod parts most times. 

I think the key on the technical side was getting all legendary mods, and as I've maxed a few things, getting top weapon energies. Key on the skill side was learning teamwork, learning how to approach each mech. 

I run Volti, Panther, Parasite, Bastion, Zephyr. I dont have the traditional favorites like Eclipse, Deathealker, or Surge. True, there is some luck with what the opposing mechs are, but I treat it as a puzzle to figure out how to beat it. Ive killed 2 Eclipses single-handed with Volti/Gemini/Helix, and 2 Surges single-handed with Zephyer/Burrow beam.

I do not often get bots. Don't like it. I just treat them as i would an inferior player.

I think when bots are used, both sides should get the exact same bot and build. Seems fair. At least you wouldn't get a crappy bot while the other side has an awesome one.

@TheGeneral "I think when bots are used, both sides should get the exact same bot and build. Seems fair. At least you wouldn't get a crappy bot while the other side has an awesome one."

What? You don't like when your bot is an M.D. while the opponent's bot is a Guardian?