Thoughts on Preview Cup?
tl;dr: feels like a positive intention move towards improvement, but is still very buggy
as a casual great league-only GBL player (1800s, not playing every day, same team since the beginning), i kept playing the preview cup over the last weeks to see what Niantic was up to.
for me, while initially I suffered with the regular mental memory, these eventually faded away (not entirely yet). more specifically, the way attacks resolve (especially on fast vs charged) most of the times felt most accurate visually, which I see as positive.
it is still very buggy, though, in many dimensions. countdown to battle start is a mess, as it is always different. there is still misalignment between visual and attack hit in terms of timing every now and then. charged attacks (feels worse on CMP ties) played at the same time are a complete lottery in terms of visual cues. the promise of responsive attacks even if there are connection issues is definitely not delivered. and have faced issues with the game not acknowledging the energy charge during the charged moves, usually landing in battle losses. it seems i have not reached the limit in terms of passes earned as a make up for bugs (3 so far), even though is definitely not the goal here.
(not related, but it also triggers me a little that when I lose the opponent celebrates, but does nothing when beaten. very politically correct…)
that’s what I can remember right now, but there’s certainly more. all in all, it is not the mess I thought it was, but far from being reliable. has been unable to see if changes have been applied over the last updates, but it doesn’t feel ready to fully replace regular mode. now that great league is back, though, I have decided not to come back to it.
wanted to check others opinions, especially considering different player profiles. thoughts?