This arena was a perfect storm. Usually there is something to drive scores down. This time, nothing. No T4B or completion challenge. AQ was just starting. It was a weekend. No urgency in limited time quests. We had just about every imaginable variable to drive scores up. She's a top 5 champ who only becomes useful when awakened, so the demand was high. Simply put, a lot more than 4,000 people wanted her. If you overshot, a cosmic Spider-Man isn't a bad prize either. No fear of awakening your Iron Fist this time around. There was a perfect series event. People in competitive alliances who don't normally grind tend to come out for these. The game is beginning to die. Overall participation in the 4 star arenas is on the decline, that means the percentage awards are starting to turn on us, fewer people competing means few people finish in the top 1-5%, and that means higher scores. The cutoff is higher when it's a few spots up the food chain. Kabam has loosened their grip on T4B's and T4C's, and that means more rank 4 and 5 fours in the arena. The same pool of people are winning the basics every week. This means you have more champs that score more points available, driving scores higher for the same amount of effort. Finally, there were people on this page saying, "to be safe hit 4 million." It's no coincidence it was just under 4 million. So what can we do? Always play to at least 200k to qualify for percentage rewards. For every 19 people who hit milestones, one more person gets a basic. It's not a lot of effort, and you are doing your part to keep the numbers up. Also, it happens to be the easiest way to get 4 star shards, so it's not entirely selfless. Stop with the "to be safe" suggestions. If people want to know what the cutoff will be, refer them to old results. Let them draw the conclusion that there will be inflation themselves. We had the same problem this summer, and we stopped suggesting scores to hit, and they leveled off for a bit. every time you say "to be safe," you inflate the previous record. It's only about 4,000 people who win the basic, and most of them frequent this board. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you are contributing to the inflation. Your heart is in the right place, but you're not helping anyone. Judge your effort in arenas by the number of matches you play, not the amount of points you score. As your team improves, it takes less effort to score the same amount of points. This is the same for everyone. Arenas are a carrot Kabam dangles in front of your face. You think if you get more high rank heroes it will get easier. It won't. In fact it's the opposite, it gets harder if you don't get them. That is because everyone else has the same idea, and is continually improving their roster. 4 million points for me today is like 3 million a few months ago. This isn't really a solution, just a reminder that inflation is part of the game by design, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are putting forth more effort. This is unfortunate for people new to the Vet bracket. Kabam has essentially frozen them out from winning anything meaningful.