Best Of

There are 300,000 total earnable points, so yes you can reach the top milestone, even if you miss a few.

Why do you make everything p2w?

I wouldn't call it pay to win. Sure, spending could be a tie breaker for points, but if you don't do everything, especially Raids, no amount of spending is going to catch you up.

Well, technically speaking $24,000 USD might catch you up. But even among the mega whales I suspect the number of people who will actually do that is very close to zero.

Since about a third of the realm points are in Raids, and my alliance doesn't do raids (much less Nightmare Raids which seems to be required to cap out the milestones) I'm basically out of it. But the event is still giving me a ton of rewards for basically just playing the game more or less as I normally do, so I can't be too upset. I find it ... odd that there's so much emphasis on Raids given their presumptive optional nature - and the fact they are tied to alliances, meaning individual players cannot simply choose to do them just for the event - but I suppose Kabam has its reasons there.

There are ranked rewards, which will be unobtainable unless you pay
I would call that pay to win

They are unobtainable even if you do pay, unless you also basically do everything. Normally the term pay to win refers to games where either whomever pays the most wins, or spending offers an overwhelming advantage compared to everything else. But that's not really true here, except in an essentially unrealistic extreme. Spending offers an advantage between two players who otherwise are tied in all other respects, but having an advantage between two competitors who otherwise do exactly the same things equally well is not pay to win, that is literally all competitions.

I'm sorry but if there's NO way you can place #1 without having to spend, it's called a PAY TO WIN event.

In whatever circles you roam, I believe you. Including the fact you probably shout it out loud while you're typing it.

I come from the ancient generation of game players that did not just make up new meanings for words to justify their use. Once upon a time, calling this situation "pay to win" would have gotten you laughed off the discussion boards. Of course, that was back when literacy was almost a prerequisite to even get on the internet, since you needed to at least be able to read instructions to do so.

By the way, there is literally no possible avenue by which a Chess player can become the FIDE world champion without spending money. Therefore, Chess is a pay to win competition.

Now it is funny you mention literacy as part of this event not being "pay to win". When comparing this event with every characteristic that a pay to win event has it is easy to conclude that the event is pay to win.
Just from a general overview where we have a leader board, with
1. A cap on the amount of points obtainable
2. Extra points only available through cash deals.

On the last paragraph, I'm so confused by your conclusion.
There is no sport that does not involve spending from training, travelling and actually earning a living.
But then concluding that all it takes to become a champion is to spend even though that is just not related.
In particular in Chess, you won't become a grandmaster and then win a championship playing and having the skills to do so.

I just want to share my opinion on the current situation. The game is basically a second full-time job for me.

Battle Grounds
I'm not an experienced player, but I've been able to keep up for the past two seasons. As soon as I reached 100 points in the Gladiator Circle, I stopped playing. I was able to do that in about 10 days. Now I'm in the situation where I've lost about 9 fights in a row, and it's a struggle to get any higher.

I bought a few items during the Fourth of July sale. Does that have anything to do with it? I don't know. But with the radiance in the game, I'm forced to do it.

In addition, I have to do all the side quests: Alliance War, Incursion, Valiant EQ, etc. It's just a lot and frustrating (bugs, boring, and long content).
I force myself to do it because I want rewards, level up Campion, and open Crystals.

I should note that I'm not playing Battlegrounds well. I understand that Battlegrounds is a competitive space and its just not for me.

But in general, I find that the different modes are getting harder and longer, while the rewards remain the same. I don't want to play compulsively after having my full-time job. Please just make the content entertaining/fun and keep the difficult and long stuff in the end game content.

Are you experiencing the same?

For at least Yelena and Bullseye, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. I absolutely do not think this is cheating.

* Both of those champs have guaranteed critical hits (Bullseye all of the time, Yelena when she's in her Elimination Mode) and Mr. Sinister heals back 70% of all damage he takes when struck by critical hits. Assuming your opponent also has the Recovery mastery, he heals back around 80% of all damage from either of those champions.
* He's bleed resistant, which means that neither of those two champs' instant bleed effects will damage him in the slightest.
* Additionally, since he is bleed resistant and places bleeds on himself, he regens continuously throughout the fight. So not only do those hits deal basically no damage to him, he also tops himself up the entire fight.

I'm not entirely sure how he could withstand that many hits from Fantman since he doesn't have those same guaranteed critical hits that make him almost unkillable when fighting specifically Bullseye and Yelena, but at the very least he would still be regenerating continuously thorughout that the fight against Fantman as well.