For me, at the heart of the problem are two things, reward vs effort and the PvP element. As we've been stating, there is nothing wrong with a bit of competition, but that's not why we play this game. I don't care who get's the top #3 places. If they have the means and the cohesion to do so, great! It's just like how I don't care how many fellowships are higher ranked than ours, or how many players are higher ranked than I am. What I do care about is my pups putting forth their best effort, whatever it may be, and only getting a few mediocre prizes that don't measure up to the effort expended to get them. Even the prizes handed out to the top #3 aren't anything special considering the effort required to get them. No, not everyone needs a reward, but anyone who puts forth enough effort to reach certain goals deserves a suitable reward.
I don't hate the event, I actually rather enjoyed it. I think it has a lot of potential. But as with anything new, it also has a lot of flaws as well. Introducing a PvP element to a game that encourages co-op, and a pretty big one at that, seems pretty contradictory. That has a lot of us concerned. Is this the direction that the game is headed? If so, a lot of people are going to move on. Elvanar's appeal for many was the lack of need to compete for anything. Work for it, yes, but not compete. Sure, we could ignore the event, but then, why play the game if we aren't going to participate in what's going on? I like participating in the events, I just have issues with the rewards not being worth the effort. But if I'm going to be asked to start competing for those mediocre prizes as well, I'll be moving on. When I want competition, I go and play a game that is built around it.