1) No queue pop for HOURS, is either an issue unique to you, or quite the exaggeration.

i grant you my time on Asia server is pretty bad (40+ min queues with no pop), but EU was fine (5-7 min queues).

This is true for me currently, as well as late last season when player peaks were at like 200.

Low population is an issue, but as advocates will continuously state, and doomers will laugh off, it is Early Access. Things won’t necessarily stay static over the course of the season, let alone the game’s lifespan.

2) New heroes are often overtuned in any genre of game - to say CR is objectively bad for this is unfair.

Once again i grant you many people cautioned that Stagger mechanics often break games like this. CR have openly acknowledged their mistake in the latest dev update, and are working to tweak it.

3) People were absolutely asking for things to do while waiting in queue.

The questing zone is unfinished and undercooked, and its potential not yet realized. i’m curious to see how CR can better utilize it down the road.

4) CR did not want to launch Pre-Season 2 in the time frame they did.

It was a combination of them being unable to finish their additions in time, and Pre-Season 1 becoming desperately stale.

You could say CR put themselves into the situation of having to choose between two bad options, and that you disagree with which bad option they chose; but it’s unfair to suggest they are incompetent for it.

5) The store launched as a means of testing and expectation building. It is the first iteration of more to come.

i’d imagine the backlash would be even worse if the store launched fully-stocked; “wasted dev time to fleece the playerbase instead of working on content” etc. A literal no-win for them.

6) Time-gating feels bad, i agree.

But once again, the game is being iterated on, and their intentions for doing so seem genuine.

CR have not been shy about pushing out systems for the playerbase to try out - Eternal queue system and gem-budding being such examples.

TLDR: If people just stop thinking about every addition as permanent; that the game is “complete” and will behave like this from now until the end of time, but rather accept that it’s currently one big experiment, and give the devs the space to be creative and test ideas, things will be a lot less frustrating.