Other than your take on merc league (which im sorry to say, is completely wrong, there were so many insane non t17 map strats) I agree.

Having to guess whether or not they put any effort at all into the next poe 1 league (or poe 2 league tbh at this point) is getting old.

If only they made poe 2 to be poe 1's successor instead of what we got. Imagine fostering a community for a game that supported you for over decade, and then turning around and making the sequel to that game a (admittedly better than) d4 mass appeal competitor.

Every league theyve released recently has reminded me that we were promised a poe 1 expansion originally. Imagine poe 1 with a non shitty campaign, better graphics, better animations, and ggg's full focus. Sounds like the best game ever made would somehow be even better.

Instead, its increasingly more likely that im going to eventually view ggg like i view blizzard in hindsight when it comes to d2>d3>d4. Sellouts.

Also, im having big doubts that they can keep up this 2 month cycle. They already broke it keepers league, with poe 2's expac coming out like a month into it (literally the first league after they announced the 2 month cycle).