TBH, ranked time-limited, exclusive rewards were a mistake. You just know people are going to cheat/boost/trade in order to get something so rare. And that sours the mode not just for those who take it seriously as a competition, but for anyone else who would like to dip a toe into the waters of PVP and try it as well.

It's easy to say "well just try it, make it to the top 100 and then you'll see how much time/effort goes into it, and you won't want to give everyone and their dog access to the same rewards."

(I don't...but I would like a version made available with collars...so at least you still have to Feast to get them).


You might be surprised to learn that it was the addition of the hellhound mounts that got me into PVP in the first place. And this was back when we had chat, so people could tell me what I needed to do and how things worked. Of course they also told me to go die in a fire, but I digress...

What they should have done from the beginning - knowing that people can and will cheat and circumvent the system and rules in place to get something so rare - was to rigorously watch those leaderboards like a hawk. Give priority to the first character on an account and boot the alts. Monitor suspicious behavior and boot the traders and cheaters. If you want to make it a real competition, be like a referee. Video evidence is practically impossible to fake, accept that in lieu of screenshots.

You cannot, cannot, cannot expect players to police a mode themselves. Some do try, but honestly, that is not and nor should it be their job. That's like asking students to manage a classroom.

So much of Feast right now is left to complete randomness. Who your teammates are and their respective skill levels. What class YOU are and how quickly (or slowly) you get to participate in a match. Add in lack of rank decay and your hands and feet are tied before you ever get out of the gate. If you still want to try despite all of this, then you've got to have luck on your side (at least from Gold and below) because you will be matched with people who don't know what they're doing, and your efforts will be a waste.

I've long advocated for Feast to either be a solely team-related mode OR to calculate points based on your own personal performance. The system as it stands right now is broken. It's the laughingstock of the rest of the game for a reason. And some players have tried hard to change that, but there's only so much we can do. Without intervention from the developers to say their piece on why it was done X way, and what's going to happen moving forward (or not), it's no wonder we feel like the mushrooms of the FFXIV world -- kept in the dark and...you know the rest.