I agree that this is the tryhard era (among many other things), but I miss the days when it was
hard to win. Now there's a basic formula to winning that pretty much everyone can follow: get a chest route, get gear, kill the other players and win. It may have gotten harder since all the players have gotten better, but there is still a strategy to win. I miss the days back in beta where everyone was a noob, and you would run around on SG 1 in leather armor, and hide in a tree if you saw someone come close. I know the feeling has been somewhat recreated in the form of SG Classic, but it's not the same. I'm not nostalgic for being under geared and being killed by mobs. I'm nostalgic for the days when I was exploring something new, and I really didn't know what was going to happen. Nowadays, each game is really just a rinse and repeat, and any wins you get are just another number tallied on to the 1000+ you already have. Back when I started playing, you needed 26 wins to get into the top 100 (I remember, because that's the amount I had when I hit #100), and every win felt like a victory. Bringing back the gameplay from those days won't bring back the feelings, because it's the players who've changed more than the game. They care far more about winning a match than the journey it takes to get there. Each game is either a win, or a loss, not the adventure it used to be. Everyone is far too good at the game to enjoy the simple pleasures MCSG used to hold, and that's not going to change.
I'm getting really nostalgic and depressing, but I guess that's what staying up till 2:30 with a concussion will do to you