Monthly Prize Fight Tier List

[BallotBoxer]

Now that we have a full year of 12 different month-long prize fights, time to take a step back and look at what works and what doesn't. It's like a SGM report card.

S​	Beginnings & Ends (January) Spring Cleaning (April) Slots O'Fun (August)
A​	Fireworks Show (July)
B​	Craic Some Heads (March) ¡Viva la Fiesta! (May) Sun of a Beach (June) Season's Beatings (December)
C​	Costume Party (October) Combocopia (November)
D​	Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due (February)
F​	A Class of One's Own (September)

The Prize Fights in chronological order if you want to make your own ranking:

• Beginnings & Ends (January)
• Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due (February)
• Craic Some Heads (March)
• Spring Cleaning (April)
• ¡Viva la Fiesta! (May)
• Sun of a Beach (June)
• Fireworks Show (July)
• Slots O'Fun (August)
• A Class of One's Own (September)
• Costume Party (October)
• Combocopia (November)
• Season's Beatings (December)

PROS AND CONS​

Beginnings & Ends (January)
+ "The Final Countdown" modifier is an exciting mix of feeling powerful and in being in terrible danger. It's great!
- Change "Party Starter" modifier so IMMUNITY and CURSE are not timeless.

Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due (February)
+ The elemental mods "She Loves Me" and "She Loves Me Not" are good
- Mandatory Valentine on your team is annoying. For team picking, and fighting (so many stalling tactics).

Craic Some Heads (March)
+ "Luck of the Irish" mod is great for Air fighters. Would be fair if other elements got a similar spotlight in other PFs.
- Replace FINAL STAND with BLESSING for "Saints and Scholars"
- Distinct prize tracks are interesting! This one should have increased Canopy Coins!

Spring Cleaning (April)
+ Constant stream of buffs/debuffs makes this one unpredictable and fun
- Fighters on the bench should not be experiencing buffs/debuffs. A blockbuster should at least affect benched fighters.

¡Viva la Fiesta! (May)
- Feels like a lesser version of Spring Cleaning
- Maybe ENRAGE should go back to BLEED? More danger/advantages. Maybe random debuffs (no DOOM or STUN, of course)?
- Revert back to 5 stacks. 3 stacks is like half power. I suppose it makes it more manageable for beginners.

Sun of a Beach (June)
+ Sunburn themed mods is funny but...
- Too much IMMUNITY! Many fighters just lose their powers.
- Perhaps replace IMMUNITY with more BARRIERS. Keep the BLEED stacks for prolonged sun exposure, but add in more random DEBUFFS to make it more dangerous.
- Needs a Minette-themed Ms. Fortune as an exclusive prize

Fireworks Show (July)
+ Great mix of modifiers
- Maybe change "Bursting In Air" mod so there is no "fully charged BB" requirement. Makes air combos scary at all times.

Slots O'Fun (August)
+ Excellent concept... when it works! Had a couple buggy weeks before this PF was polished.

A Class of One's Own (September)
+ Clever thematic mods. Let the player have "Mid-Terms" too!
- "Final Exam" has got to go. It is probably the most hated modifier in SGM history. Thematically appropriate, but incredibly annoying. Yes, it teaches intercepts and the new 20-hit combo clause eased it a little, but it just gets in the way of fun.
- Replace "Final Exam" with "Pop Quiz," a modifier that rewards intercepts instead of immediately punishing the player with invincible, life-draining enemies. Something like hitting a dashing opponent causes 100% damage (is 1000% to crazy?) or grants a buff.

Costume Party (October)
+ "Trick or Treat" is a simple, fair, and easy modifier. Great for beginners.
- Spoiled by that one year where a whole suite of silvers were added, we expect lots of new fighters to debut

Combocopia (November)
+ "Ample-tude" provides plenty of BB meter. Makes it reminiscent of Painwheel gold PF where one can see lots of blockbusters.
- Undercooked mods. "Fall Short" and "Family Feast" are inconsequential. Rarely one stops at 2-hit combos or by the time a 20-hit combo is done, the bonus buffs are not needed. Needs a stronger incentive for long combos. Maybe a Combomancer (more hits mean more damage scaling)?

Season's Beatings (December)
+ Good idea to be elemental specials, but Air fighters rule this PF (welcome to St. Patrick's Day 2)
- Other elements modifiers need to be improved to match Air's benefits. The others are near okay, but Fire is the weakest.
- Needs a mod for Neutral fighters

 

[Reshiram18]

S​	Beginnings & Ends (January) Spring Cleaning (April) Slots O'Fun (August)
A​	Fireworks Show (July)
B​	Craic Some Heads (March) ¡Viva la Fiesta! (May) Sun of a Beach (June) Season's Beatings (December)
C​	Costume Party (October) Combocopia (November)
D​	Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due (February)
F​	A Class of One's Own (September)

I agree with a fair amount of placements, so I'm merely going to write out my personal adjustments and then give why.
Combocopia: up to B
Sun of a Beach: down to C
Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due: up to B
A Class of One's Own: up to D

Combocopia's mods didn't come off as overly underwhelming to me. Fall Short is the only one that could use some tuning (changing the slow to Wither or Disable Special Moves come to mind as either a more punishing meter control or stopping bursty special spam in the combo themed PF). Ample-tude for the most part does its job of enabling long blockbuster based combos (for the proposed Fall Short change to work Ample-tude would need a simple change to manually remove the debuff when applying haste). Family Feast is well executed: for one it offered the unique timed precision that had never been seen before in other content. It also opens up some longshot potential for newer accounts with less powerful options. Combocopia didn't go to A because Family Feast can open up some defensive annoyance such as giving the defender invincibility or final stand.

Sun of a Beach is way too harsh on non Unholy Host debuff based playstyles to belong in B tier, end of story.

Roses Are Red, Violence Is Due was treated too harshly for the Val restriction. Requiring Val may suck for newer accounts, but it only really sucks for newer accounts. The elemental gimmick was done well enough for me to bump this up to B tier, but no higher because the Val restriction objectively keeps this PF out of A tier or above.

Also with nothing else in D tier on my list, A Class of One's Own gets bumped up a notch by process of elimination. Still the worst event PF by a mile though.

 

[Nefelibata]

I like ur tier list bro, expected Valentine's PF to be higher (it's just Parasoul gold pf). I also think Season's beatings need some buff for water and fire elements coz they are actually not worried about it, most annoying is dark in defense I don't wanna fight a dwish or unholy host fr with this mod.

 

[universeflash@gmail.]

i agree the sun of a beach modifier is kinda boring and too much immunity overload. (and the bleed debuff punishing players could stand to either be buffed or something as i never notice it in all honesty maybe tack on something additionally)
wish it also gave something else to defenders the spf 20 part that grants barrier is decent but feels like it lacks some ooomph.

i disagree heavily with a class of ones own.
i believe it should INFACT be harder if anything.
we need atleast one prize fight thats a challenge and memorable in all honesty.
the fact you're even writing about it here is proof enough that its working.

 

[Reshiram18]

i disagree heavily with a class of ones own.
i believe it should INFACT be harder if anything.
we need atleast one prize fight thats a challenge and memorable in all honesty.
the fact you're even writing about it here is proof enough that its working.

The problem with making any of the event PFs super hard is that they aren't meant for only endgame players. Making the event PF extremely difficult, while perhaps giving the endgame players a bit more meat than usual, will make newer players feel frustrated with the mods and get scared off of the event PF. Newer players being scared away would in turn ruin the "let's work for a month to get a free nat diamond" vibe HVS has been going for.