Hey! Sorry I couldn't really comment during the GMC, had work for most of the days and thus little time to play the games let alone write my thoughts on it. So here's my quick experience with GMC, some stuff I said but I'm considering this as my final thoughts:
THEME: Hero vs Villains. We discussed this a bit and my opinion hasn't changed, especially after seeing the selection of games which didn't really had a uniting theme. Putting aside how or why Razul is participating (or any major villain but we'll get to that), if they want to stick to this meta theme I feel having a different hero and villain each day would have been better as then we can have those days being themed after the heroes. I'm thinking Jazan vs. Razul, Jeran vs. Kass, Hannah vs. Galem, Cylara vs Sloth, Gilly vs Krawley, Garin vs Scarblade, and Brynn vs. Xandra. Or something to that affect.
Of course we could have also not done this theme which I think would have been the better option. I feel this is the first GMC which exists outside of Neopets lore and canon, something which only exists in the meta which bothers me. Or they could have done this theme but had villains such as Jhudora, Count Von Roo, Balthazar, and Vira which might not be that odd. I'd even say they could have done a Defenders of Neopia version but they hadn't had so many super villains to make a legion of evil. But overall they just picked a theme which they could use a popular character from (Jazan) and went with it.
I personally this was poorly planned out, if the re-used are assets wasn't enough of a hint. Also Lulu was just there this year, no story involving her.
CHALLENGES: Overall, for me at least, this was an easy GMC. Out of all the challenges I'd say the most "difficult" for me was Trouble at the National Neopian, everything else I got in one or two tries. And it's not that Trouble at the National Neopian was hard, I was just a bit rusty and needed to get into the game's groove (having my fingers hit the corresponding key to lock a door was the main issue). But even then I was done in minutes. It's funny, we all complain about when they make one of the games super difficult... yet when they aren't it sort of feels disappointing and makes GMC feel like a non-event (especially for those who play the games on their Favourite List mostly every day).
I'm thinking it may be time to redo the GMC, maybe have the Challenges last multiple days but either require time, skill, or teamwork with other players to finish. Like instead of 7 days of daily challenges have 5 weeks with the beginning of the week giving a list of challenges you'll spend that week completing.
PRIZES: Odd a stamp is one of the normal prizes, especially since they also gave a Collectible Scarab as a final prize (BTW the Stamp is already 500k and the Scarab is over a mil).
Nice to see a few weapons even if they aren't that good. The BD is on their mind which makes me happy.
Stealthy Kookith looks cool.
Some of the wearables I see potential use for, others not much. Long Fur Coat, Freaky Factory Wig, Prison Cage Foreground, and Weathered Wings I can see being used for some fun customisations. Though I don't know why Devils Fork Noodles and Qasalan Mirror aren't being held, instead on a stand for all Neopets.
We got two books so hold them a while and they may be valuable one day.
The winning and losing team prizes are funny. Obviously the winning team got the best one out of it however I feel that Team Hero got the better looking entry prize (have fun with your trophy and Razul on a stick, Team Villain).
The trophies are simple looking but I like them, especially the progression they go through. FUN FACT: As always you can mess with the URL and see the alternate versions of the trophies. As in a silver set of Team Villain trophies and a gold set of... Team Fire trophies? Yeah, they didn't upload the gold version of Team Hero trophies... and I guess they'll never have to now. Not like its hard to imagine what they'd look like, I'd could probably edit one together if I felt like it.
And that was this year's GMC. Sad to say, kind of forgettable despite the theme (or rather one of the hosts) making us go "HUH?!".
