So the main question is: are the devs unaware of the research impact on the tournament requirements or are devs thinking that the players are unaware of it? The military building upgrades are not enough to even compensate for doing this chapter, not to mention chapter 16. Who decided that it will be a good idea to design the game where not playing is the best strategy?
Most of the production increases in the event buildings are making me laugh. I get that with the buildings that are now considered too powerful, like Jesters Tavern, the devs are trying to indirectly nerf them. But the increase from 310 to 320 for the Valorian Valor and from 370 to 380 for the Groungs of the Orc Strategist? Seriously, what? After the tournament revamp they got much less useful as it is and are loosing value with each city upgrade, because their production doesn't scale. So maybe it could be a good idea to buff them by at least 14% which will be the added cost of completing this chapter, without placing any expansions or upgrading any AWs.
Do you have two separate teams, which are unaware of each other? One that did the tournament revamp and the other that designed the chapter? Otherwise I see no reasonable explanation for what I'm seeing here.