I'm writing this post because I'm really fed up with how hourglass works. its not fun anymore and arena was a way better pvp mode. here are my reasons.

• 1v1 matches are really not that fun, sure theyre fun if you have a good crew, and are steam rolling everyone, I understand that but having more than 2 boats in each battle fighting over each other would be so much better.

• Hourglass lets you bring any supplies you want, which creates an uneven playing field as curses can change the entire course of a fight. Arena did not have this, every boat in arena had the same supplies. and every boat was even. it was only reliant on skill rather than who can out supply the opponent.

• Hourglass is very repetitive and almost every match is the exact same.

• Being third partied in hourglass really sucks, and you can lose an entire battle because some random player decided they wanted in on the action which causes you to stop whatever youre doing to deal with the other boat even if you were already winning the battle. This can cause the other boat to get completely reset and team up with the third party then sink you.

• Arena's way of declaring victory amongst the other teams was way better than hourglasses. Earning silver by damaging other boats, selling chests, killing players, and sinking boats was a very much better alternative than just sinking the opposition.

• Finding people to play hourglass is a very annoying task as many people already have premade crews. This leaves anyone looking for a crew to play hourglass with to either go in adventure open crew and try to find a team competent enough to maybe win one or two matches of hourglass. Or you could go in the discord, which sometimes is good, but most of the time is a complete waste of time, as many people lie about their experience, and say theyre better than what they actually are. In arena however there was quite literally a selection to be put into a crew with other people who wanted to play arena this is a far better method than what hourglass has to offer. I often find myself going into solo sloop because I cant find any crews to play with.

• Queue times are a horrible thing in hourglass, especially with the fact that there is literally nothing to do while you wait, and if you mess around while underwater you jeopardize losing the first broadside of the battle.

• Cheaters are also a very common occurrence, and they have gotten very more problematic since the release of hourglass.

So what do I suggest? I think that arena could be readded to the game just a different version of arena. you could keep the story behind Athena vs Reapers but, you could make it a separate game mode. This new arena would work as a 2v2, where you both have an area of the map you must defend, and a chest on each side of the area. This would make for an amazing game mode where one boat on a team would play the offense, while the other would play the defense. You would earn 'Coins of fate' for each chest delivered, you would also earn these for damaging boats, killing players, or sinking a ship. Each boat would also get the same amount of supplies, increasing amounts for each ship type. Once the timer runs out whoever has the most points wins.
This would be a far better alternative to hourglass in my opinion, and I think many more people would play and enjoy the pvp aspect of Sea of thieves.