Originally Posted by
ThirdChild_ZKI
It's actually a bit of the opposite. You literally have a choice now to compete in the Feast and place top 10, or simply wait til the season is over, and put in the very-likely-lesser effort to achieve the same thing. The time-release is simply to not discourage those currently competing for it, but effectively, SE has just said "Climb the mountain now, or walk the trails later. The same prize will be awarded regardless of the method or effort chosen." Everyone has a chance to get the minion now, and that's truly great, but with what's been laid out, why should anyone bother to compete for it now?
And as stated before, I'm personally not all that interested in the minion. I still don't even know what it is.