Summoners!

I hope you’re ready for a busy month in Marvel Contest of Champions as v30.0 will bring us Love Is A Battlerealm 4 One, the Lunar New Year Event, a Valentine’s Calendar, and two classic Fantastic Four villains: Psycho-Man and Super-Skrull!

Read the Official Release Notes

V30.0 HIGHLIGHTS
EQ – Mixed Emotions
Love Is a Battlerealm 4 One
Psycho-Man
Super-Skrull
Champion Buffs
A Month of Love
Lunar New Year
Bug Fixes & Improvements

EVENT QUEST

In February’s Event Quest, Johnny Storm notices that the heroes of the Battlerealm are acting strangely. What could be causing this and is the Fantastic Four’s old adversary the Super-Skrull responsible?

LOVE IS A BATTLEREALM 4 ONE

Once against, Deadpool is up to no good in the month of love. Deadpool has sought out Psycho-Man to use his Control Box to solve his emotional problems, but as one would expect, unintended consequences ensue. It’s up to you to sort things out, and if you need some help, bring champions with the Romance Synergy to feel the Power of Love.

Read the Forum Post on Love is a Battlerealm 4 One

PSYCHO-MAN

Psycho-Man is a Tech Champion from the Microverse set on dominating our regular-sized universe. His suit carries the Control Box, which allows him to control the emotions of his opponents, especially negative feelings such as doubt and fear.

Note that every Summoner will receive a 3-Star Psycho-Man in February, which can be used to complete Solo Objectives and earn rewards including Profile Pictures and Self Love Boosts.

Psycho-Man is a bit of a deep-cut from the Fantastic Four’s rogue gallery. He first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #5 (1967), and then in a couple more issues of Fantastic Four in the 60s before disappearing entirely in the 1970s. He was brought back in the 80s in the Micronauts series and for an arc in John Byrne’s Fantastic Four run. For the past 30 years he’s made sporadic appearances, tangling with Cable, Silver Surfer, and Spider-Man among others.

Want to read some Psycho-Man comics? Check out a list of his Comic Appearances.

SUPER-SKRULL

February’s other champion, the Super-Skrull, is a classic Fantastic Four villain, and in fact has all the powers of Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in game! Super-Skrull will be a Cosmic Champion in MCOC.

Super-Skrull’s real name is Kl’rt, and he was created way back in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. His first appearance was in Fantastic Four #18 “A Skrull Walks Among Us.” Originally, he was sent to Earth to defeat the Fantastic Four, who had previously repelled a Skrull Invasion. To do so, he was given the combined powers of the Fantastic Four. He is also a master of many forms of combat and has proven immune to detection by Wolverine’s sense of smell and Charles Xavier’s telepathy.

In addition to his battles with the Fantastic Four, Kl’rt played a part in the Kree-Skrull war, and the major Cosmic events Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. Both Annihilation series are must reads if you are into cosmic Marvel and want to learn the origins of the modern Guardians of the Galaxy. One thing that is very important to note about Kl’rt’s backstory is that Galactus destroyed his homeworld, and we all know the Devourer of Worlds is on his way to the Battlerealm.

Want to read some Super-Skrull comics? Check out a list of his Comic Appearances.

CHAMPION BUFFS

The champion buffs for Kingpin, Mole Man, Terrax, and Yellowjacket will go live as soon as you update to v30.0. Look for champion spotlights for these four coming soon.

A MONTH OF LOVE

There will be several Valentine’s themed events going on in February. The Shattered Heart Crystals make a return. If you remember these from past years, they feature champions that have a Romance or It’s Complicated synergy. Earn Shattered Heart Shards from Love is a Battlerealm, Arena Milestones, and Solo Objectives. You can also send out Valentine’s Cards in a special Gifting event to earn more shards. Finally, there will be a special Valentine’s Calendar featuring even more Shattered Heart Shards, Love Juice, and Self Love Boosts.

LUNAR NEW YEAR

Celebrate the Lunar New Year with a special Lunar New Year Calendar and send Red Tickets to your friends to contribute to the Alliance Gifting Event. There will also be a special “beginner friendly” quest.

BUG FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS

● Class Catalyst Selectors will now display the player’s inventory of full Catalysts or Fragments on the selection screen.

● New Class and Challenge Buffs for Cavalier Difficulty Event Quest.

● Professor X: Fixed issue where the Surge abilities were not treated as a passive.

● Rocket Raccoon: Updated Signature description to show Crit Rating potency every hit in the combo instead of every 10 hits. Fixed issue where the Signature Critical Rating potency was calculating as 1 less than the combo meter specified.

● Vulture: Fixed Special 3 effects which were overlapping other effects.

● Armored Assault Buff: Added the Unblockable icon when the defender becomes Unblockable.

● Auto Fight Button: Turning off Auto Fight while the attacker is blocking no longer keeps the attacker in the blocked state.

● Do Not Go Gentle Buff: Edited Description to clarify the buff in more detail. Edited description to clarify Intercepting and Heavy attacks reduce charges even when the opponent is not about to be KOed.

● Power Sting 3.0 Buff: Updated to now inflict the Attacker with a permanent Power Sting with infinite duration that deals the Defenders Attack rating as direct damage to the Attacker when casting specials.

● Scientific Method 2 Buff: Edited Description to specify the max is 55.5% instead of 50%. Edited Description to specify 11.1% is removed every 10 hits.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m excited to turn the page to February, and with any luck, v30.0 will be a much better update in terms of game stability. I don’t know much about Psycho-Man, but Super-Skrull has the potential to be a very cool addition to the Contest. I’m interested in seeing how the design team addresses the challenge of incorporating all the powers of the Fantastic Four into one champion. Love is A Battlerealm is always a good time, as I love 80s music references and the Deadpool dialogue is usually a lot of fun to read. Here’s hoping for a quality month in MCOC.

-Dano357