The first Raid Tournament had issues with matchmaking that we were not able to detect before the feature went live. In Beta we test new features and content, and receive feedback from a limited group of players. However, in the live game we had over a million participants of varying levels enter the first Tournament. Due to this it was - and still is - very challenging to test a feature of this magnitude outside the live game.
With larger new features such as the Raid Tournament, adjustments are needed to ensure they run smoothly and give the best player experience possible. I hope that you accept our sincerest apologies for the issues that have risen. We all understand it was disappointing to play a malfunctioning Tournament and that the various issues with matchmaking caused a lot of frustration. Please note that we’ll also continue improving the matchmaking over the coming weeks.
I am very sorry for the confusion over the changes that were made due to the issues. I agree that mentioning the changes in the build notes will not always be enough to explain what is happening and how it will affect your gameplay experience. We are taking this as a valuable lesson and I will make sure to add a step to our communications before we do any major releases or significant changes.
I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to provide valuable feedback and ideas regarding the Raid Tournament and how it could be developed further. Please do keep in mind that our first priority right now is to make sure that the current issues are fixed before any further adjustments are made. This includes changes to the loot, which will be made better than it currently is once we are confident that it will be distributed fairly based on performance.
We will keep you updated on our progress. You can find a log of all the changes we make to this feature here: Raid Tournament Change Log
Thank you for your patience with us.