He's eligible for legendary, so he gets 1000 merit.
Well, "eligible" is random
The user is a legendary member now, I assume they already were tagged as one when the initial merit score was calculated.
but it would definitely be too harsh to get just 500. I get it now
That's what I got

Actually I have been legendary for a few weeks already now. Strange you see my rank as hero.
edit; I see my rank as hero as well now, I ranked down?
edit2; Seems to be back to normal.