Definitely agreed, Dante! Thumbs up
To build upon that, I strongly suggest to change completely the way HC is run, as to change the way players think of it too. Instead of letting the people who hide score all the points, make it the opposite.
There was a recent change, which is:
"A minimum score of 2000 points is needed to win a medal and stats at the heads contest."
It was intended to increase player interest, but obviously it only decreased. People want change in the way HC is run, not for it to be made more difficult as to force people to participate. That's what makes it boring and causes people to lose interest. I openly declare, I am one of those people.
Nowadays, winning HC is NOTHING to be proud of. I actually agree that it should be made difficult, but in a way that it should be enjoyable. Instead of the above change, there should be something to create more action, more fighting, make it more fun. I don't know if it's possible, but perhaps remove stage 1 completely, and just have stage 2 directly? And instead of having a headcount requirement, (though of course, would have no purpose anymore) keep a 7-day deadline after which HC would end. In this way, automatically I suppose, the headcount would have been reached.
Oh, and if MP5's still won't find it enjoyable, most MP4's will.
Apart from all, this is at least SOMETHING to work on. Looking at the current situation of HC... I'm sure no one would say that there are already other problems, bugs to be solved, etc. So dst, please don't say that here. You HAVE to agree that HC is definitely something to develop.