Yeah, I don't bother with tournaments anymore. In an early update I got a sword called "The Ambassador" as a reward for my first win. Awesome. But since, tournaments are so not fun/rewarding I just don't bother with that part of the game anymore.
So Devs, please hear me out. Please make tournaments more rewarding by implementing:
1. Better rewards - this is probably obvious but the best tourneys I have player were ones for things like special horses, named weapons, etc. I would like to see a. named items return, b. more rare mounts, and c. genuinely unique items become available at tourneys, e.g. a crafted sword with a unique look/stats. I also think the items won should be powerful, not just things you can get for relatively cheap on the market.
2. More difficulty - I've been using an exploit to win tourneys (especially the sword and shield ones in Imperial towns) where I circle my enemy and spam the right-side, horizontal swing attack. For some reason enemies seem hesitant to attack back, so I am free to aim swings towards their heads until they're down. It's fun to win, but it's not as fun to be able to cheat your way through so easily. The reason I advocate for a difficult increase is, I think it'd make the whole experience more rewarding. The first tourney I won (prior to finding the exploit), my heart was pounding and I called my partner to tell her (lol). It was amazing. I felt I had earned it.
I'm just asking y'all to give other players that experience by making the tourneys feel like a challenge, and rewarding them like they really earned something. That's my idea of fun.