This is going to be a bit if a twofer, but there’s a few things about challenger that’s started to bug me.
The first is a general inconsistency regarding how the challenger rules and hero skills interact with each other.
For instance, in this season, all heroes begin with a hex effect, but a maxed red skill Mad Hatter causes the effect to be removed.
Conversely, one season a few seasons back had a rule where all heroes started with a study effect, but a maxed red skill Pleakley wouldn’t apply any mosquitoes. (I get the slight difference of one being a passive effect that lasts a set time and the other is an active application, but still.)
There are probably more cases where rules and hero skills interact inconsistently but those are the two that immediately come to mind.
The second thing that’s starting to bug me is a bit more specfic, but next season’s rule is the Bear Trap one, which does nothing but add an element of complete luck to the efforts of trying to get a quick win, seeing as the same teams would have different trap configurations each time and thus whether or not a key hero gets stunned halfway through becomes completely random.
(I get that HDL does the same thing but it’s one thing to deal with a team that’s designed with that aspect and another to deal with it being there regardless)