As long as they insist on rejecting objective reality, yes, it really is that hard. Right now the arena is... well, not fixed, but tolerable I guess is the word I'm looking for, due to the category 1 team you noted above. They claim it's "new segments" and not bots, which is odd considering adding bots would probably be the only good idea they had if that was the case, but whatever. The result is basically the same; that while the arena is still a complete mess and a pyramid scheme that is inherently unsustainable, it's at the moment at least possible to get your regular medal farming out of the way without too much trouble and otherwise completely ignore it as it deserves to be.

Currently, I'm in a don't-rock-the-boat mode when it comes to the arena. Like I said, it's tolerable right now, and while I'd be happy to explain in detail why their idea of competitiveness in a game that is in no way designed to have a healthy competitive environment is utter nonsense, I'm fully aware of the fact that any change at this point will probably just make things worse for everyone involved. My greatest fear right now is slipping back down to silver and being subjected to that garbage they call a match making system.

I love the new added segments. I just wonder why it's a entire page of them at a time. If they were real players why are they never mixed in with legit teams? If they are not bots, then plarium needs to just add bots.

I feel like arena is slowly returning to how it was. Everyone should be farming as many medals as possible and getting as far into arbiter quest as possible while arena is easy still. I have no idea why plarium sticks it's head in the sand and ignores what players want out of arena and ignores the countless easy fixes ie more tiers.

@OP if you post your team and roster people here can help and generally give you good advice. From your first post I took that you are newer and might not have you champs fully ranked up. That is the first thing to do.

It's impossible to create a working arena in the system they have chosen. The low teams as easy prey, that make the arena tolerable, are the only thing they can do.

The arena is a mess and will ever be. The concept of getting rewards (medals) only for victories in active fights, but getting no reward for defensive victories, can not work. Before they put in the easy-prey-teams, everybody exept the top players, that could win in Gold 4, was sandbagging into lower tiers. A 50% win ratio in fights where you attack in Gold 2 gives less medals than a 100% win ratio in Gold 1. To drop down you just have to put in a single lvl 1 champion in your defensive team until you reach the level where you want to fight. Put in your real defense again, start your 100% win ratio massacre as attacker and be back in your real arena tier at the end of the week to receive the reward chest.

The only reason why nobody is sandbagging right now is, that everybody can win medals in Gold 4 now. Just skip all teams that are not obviously category 1. The come in groups of 10 very often.

Tell yourself that after the classic arena quests to get the arbiter there are other series of team arena quests and there is not your case 1. Only 2 and 3 from silver. I don't know how to do them for several months.