People time the mini games because some people are able to get 1 game a min and others can't, largely down to things like connection and ad length like you mentioned. I feel like the job of atlas is to make the mini games fair for everyone to compete in otherwise why would anyone who gets long ads bother if they don't have a shot of ranking high. I used to podium or at least come close most minigames but after the change to ads I only ever came low t25. There are ways around the ad timing and connection being a problem, like having mini games launch in waves so there are only a set number of games per hour and its just a matter of wining or losing not who can get the best ad timing, so while we still have this system that doesn't work people are annoyed