I'll start by saying that maybe I just suck and need to drastically change my strategy, but hear me out, because I'm curious if others feel the same as I do.

I expected Invictus to be a challenge, but it feels like it's a challenge for all the wrong reasons. Badges are incredibly important during the late game, as in a lobby of all high skill players, it's exceptionally unlikely that you'd stand a chance with no badges unless you're an absolute god among men--or just really lucky.

Usually this means ensuring that you get your hands on badges during the mid or early game, but that's much easier said than done.

Invictus requires that you have won a match already in Tetris 99, so the majority of players are already well versed in bombarding opponents with garbage. With all that garbage flying around, we run into a problem: any player that's about to be knocked out damn near becomes a lottery for everyone involved in the kill.

Tetris 99 doesn't reward players for doing the most damage to an opponent, but rather simply for being the last (or one of the last?) to fire garbage in their direction before their death. With so many opponents all sending garbage at once, it becomes difficult for players to meaningfully improve their chances of being the one rewarded for the kill. Instead, a ton of players all effectively throw their name into a hat, and one of them comes out the lucky winner, taking home that target's badges while the rest walk away with nothing.

In the normal Tetris 99 environment, there's enough weaker players involved that stronger players can usually secure a few kills. But in a lobby of almost entirely strong players, earning badges becomes more of a dice roll. And... to me at least, that's not really fun.

The later stages don't really do much to help this either. By the time the field has been reduced far enough for players to be able to make more meaningful attacks, most of the badges have already been distributed, and thus, for the most part, the winners--or at least those who stand any sort of chance--have already been decided.

I've made it fairly far in Invictus several times, but the few times I've come close to winning (and the one time so far that I've actually won), it hasn't felt earned. I'd send garbage to player after player after player, and in those few matches I was lucky enough to have my name pulled out of that hat, and with badges behind me, I was able to compete for first place. Most matches though, I often find myself with barely any badges, holding on for as long as I can, but inevitably being overwhelmed when a player with a full stack decides it's just my time to die.

Maybe I simply am the weaker player in Invictus, and perhaps I simply don't have the skill to compete with opponents this fierce. I know I'm not the best at the game, but the speed of Invictus doesn't bother me, and with a 25% to 30% win rate in the normal Tetris 99 mode, I feel like I should stand some sort of chance.

But as it is... I can't help but feel like it's left to luck. Do I end up with badges in the early or mid games? If so, great, but if not? I might as well just top myself out and move on.

I dunno. Does anyone else feel the same, or am I legitimately just too trash to keep up with the competition?