Removal of Regional Finalist Supporter Packs

by Alexander Garden in [ Announcements ] on, Oct 27, 2016 7:00 PM UTC
Greetings MechWarriors,

With the conclusion of the Regional Qualifiers and Regional Finals, we wanted to provide each of the Regional Finalists with the ability to acquire an in-game item, branded with their Team Emblem, to forever commemorate their participation in the Tournament. We additionally wanted to offer a way for the playerbase as a whole to both show their support for the participating Teams and boost the total Tournament Prize Pool for the World Championship Finals.
In that spirit, we created the Regional Finalist Supporter Packs.

Originally, these Regional Finalist Supporter Packs inherited the previous structure used for our Tournament Supporter Pack; 50% of the proceeds from these Regional Finalist Supporter Packs were to be contributed toward the Tournament Prize Pool. That percentage was increased to 100% on the day of their launch, Friday, October 21st, to help address some concerns regarding the use of split proceeds.

While the proceeds were originally split, making these Regional Finalist Supporter Packs available for purchase by the playerbase was not a decision geared toward profit. Rather, the availability of these Regional Finalist Supporter Packs was, first and foremost, in the spirit of what the name of the program implies; to reward the Finalists with an in-game item branded with their Team Emblem, and to provide players with an opportunity to show their support for the Finalists.

In the days following our initial statement regarding the above change to the distribution of proceeds, along with a few other changes and clarifications related to the MWOWC, additional concerns and complaints regarding the use of Team Emblems in these Packs have been expressed.
Put simply, our request and submission process for receiving these Emblems from participating Teams was not clear enough, and some participants in particular were caught off guard by the use of their submitted Emblem for the Hanging Cockpit Item provided through their associated Regional Finalist Supporter Packs.

As a result of this feedback, to address any potential conflicts or grievances with the introduction of these Team Emblems into the game either as in-game Cockpit Items or as Decals, we are removing all instances of the Regional Finalist Hanging Item from all player accounts, along with all instances of any Team Emblem Decals released to members of the associated Finalist teams.
Unfortunately, this is not something we can limit only to the Teams who have specifically expressed their issues with the use of their Team Emblems. To address any further potential conflicts or grievances all Emblems need to be removed.
The Regional Finalist Support Packs are no longer available for purchase, and have been removed from the website.

To ensure player accounts aren’t adversely affected by these inventory removals we will be bringing the servers down for a brief period on October 27th, starting at 3PM PDT, during which time we will complete the removals. We expect this downtime to last no longer than 30 minutes at most. You can find the downtime notice here.
For the same reasons that we are removing the Team Emblem Hanging Item and Team Emblem Decals, the Team Emblem Decals planned for injection to members of the 16 Regional Qualifier Teams for whom Team Emblem Decals were also created, but not yet released, will not be included with the November patch as planned.

We sincerely apologize to any Teams or players who were comfortable with their Emblem being in the game, and will be disappointed to see it go, but at this time we feel our solution to this must be comprehensive. That said, it is possible that we can re-approach the situation differently at a later date.

In regards to the other content received from the Regional Finalist Supporter Pack, we are only removing the Team Emblem Hanging Item.
All purchases of a Regional Finalist Supporter Pack will be refunded in full as soon as Support services can process them.
Any player who acquired a Regional Finalist Supporter Pack will nonetheless retain the Standing Item, Warhorn, and 7 Days Active Premium Time received with their original purchase. We will not be removing those items.

The Tournament Prize Pool will be updated to reflect the removal of the Regional Finalist Supporter Pack proceeds.
While we will make every effort to process these refunds as soon as possible, the number of Packs acquired since their initial release may require a few business days for all refunds to be processed by our Support agents. No action is required from you regarding the refund of your Pack purchase(s).
Once your refund is initiated by PGI Support Services it may take a few business days for the refund to be finalized, depending on your purchase method.
For any players who acquired a Regional Finalist Supporter Pack using a non-refundable purchase method, PGI Support services will be contacting you directly to determine a refund solution.

This refund also applies to any Regional Finalist Supporter Pack Gift Codes that have not yet been redeemed. Even after they are refunded however, any such Gift Codes will still be redeemable; redeeming such a Gift Code will simply not provide the player with the Team Emblem Hanging Item. All other items will be redeemed as normal.

Quick Summary

• The Regional Finalist Supporter Packs are no longer available for purchase.
• Regional Finalist Team Emblem Hanging Items are being removed from all player and Finalist accounts.
• Regional Finalist Team Emblem Decals are being removed from all Finalist accounts.
• All Regional Finalist Supporter Pack purchases will be refunded in full.
• The Standing Item, Warhorn, and 7 Days Active Premium received from the Regional Finalist Supporter Packs are not being removed from player accounts.
• The Team Emblem Decals of the 16 Regional Qualifier Teams for whom Team Emblem Decals were also created will not be released to their associated members in the November patch, as originally planned.

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