It's January 2026 and I'm still not over how close I came. If you've queued BO7 lately, you've seen that animated "Shower" camo sliding across someone's loadout like it owns the room, and every time I spot it I get that same gut-punch. I even caught myself doom-scrolling threads about faster camo grinds and stuff like a BO7 Bot Lobby, because once you've missed a limited-time flex by a whisker, normal progression suddenly feels way less "noble" and way more like chores.

What The Event Actually Felt Like

Astra Malorum wasn't a simple "play enough and you'll get it" deal. It was top 5 in your bracket, full stop, and it ended right around the Season 1 Reloaded window in early December. Not top 10%. Not "pretty good." Five names. That's why it got under my skin: it wasn't just time, it was pressure, and it always felt like you were one refresh away from someone leapfrogging you while you were asleep.

My Grind Plan And The Night It Broke

I lived on Citadelle des Morts for three straight days and I wasn't messing around. XM325 for the workhorse moments, Ray Gun variant for the "nope" situations, then straight into the main quest route. I'd knock out the early Acts, settle into the courtyard, and run trains until my hands hurt. The Doppelghast conversions were the whole point—hit the multiplier, keep moving, don't get greedy. My best run landed at 58,000 points, and when I finally crashed I was sitting in 3rd, telling myself, "Okay, that's it, you did it."

Getting Bumped And Watching The Lottery Happen

I woke up and I was 7th. Just like that. Someone posted 62k late and I got dumped into the consolation pool, so I ended up with "Cratered" instead—fine, sure, but it's not the camo people stop to stare at. What really messed with me was seeing friends in softer brackets grab Shower with scores in the 30k range. That's the part nobody wants to say out loud: the bracket sorting made it feel less like skill and more like getting lucky with where the system placed you.

Back To Mastery And The Tempting Shortcuts

Now it's back to Gold, Diamond, Nebula—headshots, multi-kills, the whole slow treadmill. After that bracket sweat, public matches feel weirdly tedious, and you can see why players start looking for ways to speed it up, whether that's bot lobbies or services that help with time-consuming unlock grinds. If a mid-January event really shows up, I'm not doing this solo again; I'm building a squad, playing smarter, and staying awake for the final hours, and if I end up needing reliable help with in-game items or currency to keep pace, I already know where people go for that: RSVSR.