We're also looking at a very long wait on any meta-game that could easily be resolved by former leagues like NBT and renewed interest in the community. My fear is that people will see this as additional community fragmentation when it should have the opposite effect and some of the following benefits:
1) Training - Right now there is no easy way to train new players and this game has a very steep learning curve. The ability to drop with your own unit to practice builds etc... is invaluable and a very glaring oversight that needs to be addressed.
2) Meta-game / Strategy - There are already systems in place that have been used in the past and while the maps and mech count is quite low still, I'm sure there are some innovative and intrepid players out there that could put together a league that would foster strategic gameplay with consequences. I.E. You have a limited tonnage, mech type and feature sets that have to be balanced. Therefore ECM, BAP and many other features are actually limited as well as Assault and other expensive chassis in a realistic manner. The community policies itself and provides competition that has meaning instead of redundant drops where the entire goal is simply to kill the other team over and over.
3) Competitive Gameplay - Help channel the 4/8/12 man teams away from PUG stomping and reduce some of the hatred levels out there. The current matchmaking for 8 man is utterly and hopelessly broken. Hopefully the next iteration this month will fix some of it but until a battle value and/or tonnage limit system is in place that promotes realism instead of 800 tonnage drops you can count on continued lack of interest. What I'm seeing now are 4 man teams timing their drops which has about a 30% success rate of them ending up on same team and higher for the same game.
I'm sure there are other benefits that others will hopefully expand upon.
Edited by Caleb Lee, 02 February 2013 - 11:08 PM.