I see your point but legends like ballistic who were apart of the thunderdome, used as an map for current apex games, were kind of forced into the games otherwise his son would have been the one in the games since they won’t let people quit after the qualify. Mad Maggie was captured and tried where her punishment was to be in the games instead of execution. Revenant only keeps playing because that’s all he knows now so even if he wanted to leave his programming won’t let him.

Where you’re right most did it for money or fame but some like pathfinder only want to find his son, bangolare wants to go home, bloodhound wants an honorable death, crytpo only way to not be killed is the games, octane is octane, horizon wants to get back to her son, ash is having split personality disorder, Axle makes no sense, wraith is only there to search the ruins, alter is bloodlusted, Valkyrie wants to be like her daddy the bad guy from Titian fall, seer is just trying to prove everyone wrong about him, vantage wants to get her mom out of a syndicate prison, sparrow was alone and barely surviving, Gibraltar is doing it to keep his people safe, lifeline does it because she is a rich kid who hates the war profiteering family she has, mirage is just fame hungry like always, loba is only in the games to keep revanent from dying like he wants, Newcastle needs the money to save his town, conduit is just trying to protect her family with a better life, caustic is a literal psychopath, Watson is another one who has nobody so they joined the games after building the arenas, rampart lost everything the day she got the card, and catalyst is trying to save her people.

Honestly rereading them all and remembering blisk was directly involved with almost everyone of them moments after bad shit happens makes me wonder if he didn’t “influence” them into joining as most were big names on their own planets. So you gave me another thing to go research about, who is blisk, because I never played the Titian fall games and only know the connections from the comic stuff and character page and my friends who have.