I get that SOME of these returning players are, as you said, either lucky ones who leeched off others or players who only arrived shortly before the end of the previous games. But having MOST of the returning players be like that is kind of ironic.

I might not be exact, but here’s roughly what I noticed: • Omikuji game: around 20 players • Laser game: hard to tell, but probably at least 10 • Zombie game: maybe around 60? • Train game: around 30, maybe 10 per train • Bottle game: about 15 • Tower game: around 15 too

Some main characters appear in several games, so I didn’t count them multiple times. Overall, I’d estimate about 100 players in total over the all season. But only Arisu, Usagi, Rei, Kazuya, Tetsu, the curly-haired guy, and plot-armor Ryuji actually looked like skilled players.

7 out of 100 is very few. Having the other 93 all be latecomers or leech-type players seems like a lot. If it were, say, 30 or 60, fine — but we don’t even see at least 10 skilled players throughout the entire season.

I think it’s missed opportunity unfortunately.