Holy bajeezus, today's challenge is PURE EVIL!
Sure, you get 8 soldiers, but they're all low-ranking specialists with weak hack scores, Gremlin Mark IIs, and ballistic weapons up against heavy MECs and THREE bloody sectopods!
You literally have no choice but to gamble with domination haywire protocols to get through the mission at all, as in the mission is literally impossible to complete without hacking - hence why only the top 5 scores right now have a mission completion bonus! It's bonkers-insane scenario design that just reeks of sadism. If you get lucky and get those early mind controls, the mission is beatable. If not, your only hope is to complete the objective and then watch all your soldiers die after you run out of grenades and combat protocols, because those ballistics are completely useless (aside from the ONE soldier who has bluescreen rounds - just the ONE.)
I literally only managed to snake my way into the top 5 through an incredibly lucky last-round domination hack. Literally only had ONE soldier left and she was surrounded by two heavy MECs and the sectopod, and that sectopod was what let me actually finish the mission. I'll admit, it was quite the thrill when that hack went through, but all the same - I would really, truly prefer that Firaxis move away from these kinds of gambling scenarios where the only solution is to bet on something with significantly low odds of success.