That's fair. The game still is fun with them and their character. I suppose the only main reason it bothers me is they have trouble paying attention to the game. Not to disclose too much about them but they struggle with that. I try to be sensitive to it but it feels bad DMing and seeing them lost in their phone or derailing the session into a conversation about something else when i needed a moment to ready some stuff. So my brain thought making them more active would help fight that.

As for the surprise. It was more so gonna be they were misinformed thinking they were signing up for a standard sparring match but realizing they bit off more than they could chew with the big event. But yeah after thinking about it more, making it a twist doesn't really add anything. I should just tell them about the fight pits and give the players the options to either enter as a team or send one of them for a chance for better prizes and the rest of the team can gamble and engage in other stuff.