To combine both your posts there Trevor, it seems to me that many people who were in Gold 4 that are in Gold 1 now have just been out-geared. The rest of the people have continued to farm daily. But when the unhappy folks hit some speed, like a 295 Lyssandra or High Khatun or Arbiter, they pretty much stopped farming speed gear.
Okay, I made Gold 4, no need to worry about speed again! Let me focus on other things exclusively for three to six months, and only farm dragon or spider during fusion tourneys.
Meanwhile, as other players improve, Gold 4 kept getting more difficult for them, but they just managed to stay in, so they didn't start farming again. And now that they've fallen back into Gold 3 or 2 or even Silver, it seems like an impossible task. And they are upset.
How many people do we see hop on and say "Why THE 5^%!$ doesn't my 280/297/294 Arbiter or Lyss not cut it anymore? It USED to win months ago!" And then when the suggestion comes to farm gear for a month or two, people flat out say they are not interested. They refuse and get angry at the suggestion, demanding the game and speeds go back to what the speeds where when that player first made Gold. People on here even suggest gearing for a go second team, and do so quite often, but that is usually flat out refused as well.
If you've fallen out of Gold 4, and you want to be there, the solution is to farm gear to be faster, or farm gear to go second. Cause frankly Trevor, I wholeheartedly agree with this:
Success in arena requires grinding until your eyes bleed, grinding some more and then grinding even more- on dragon/fireknight/spider
It requires a reasonable spread of champs, but gear > champs generally (some key champs such as duchess/hedge/siphi are huge however)
Arena is about gear. Get the gear to get and stay in Gold.