Few points :
- Wording of this "Event" was a little bit confusing with a lot of people thinking it was Event Queue . Since it was named as "8V8 QUICK PLAY WEEKEND EVENT" instead of "8V8 QUICK PLAY WEEKEND TEST" or something similar.
- Compies are in no way at fault for this event , people throwing stones their way are only doing it so because they are mentioned in this post. Many wont but some people that have played the game since the start will remember that the game used to be 8v8 initially . Compies in no way conspired with PGI to make this event a thing , they were as unaware as the rest of you.
- MWO Spaghetti code complicated things since groups of 3 restriction didn't work properly and people got to experience a slightly more extreme version of Soup Queue. Where more than 50% of the team was essentially all grouped players giving (good or bad) groups a lot of influence over match outcome.
- Because tonnage restrictions or limits were not adjusted to accommodate the change people can see more heavier classes in the queue since that's just the nature of things and preference of most of the playerbase in general , especially if you don't place restrictions on it.
That said ... People shouldn't be judging 8v8 format based on this test because of the above mentioned points . like I said in the first post soup queue (mix of groups and solos ) complicates things greatly . But 8v8 format does have a number of advantages when compared to 12v12 and I will mention some of them below .
- Increased TTK . Since there are less things shooting at you at any given time , TTK of all mechs on the battlefield was extended.
- Increased game performance . Since there are less mechs and since less unoptimized effects are being spammed everyone is getting a sizable game performance boost.
- More individual player agency . Players individual actions now matter more now since there are less players in a match.
- Faster match formation . Less people needed for Match Maker to form a match results in more matches being kicked off faster and in greater quantity.