Matsuri matching is too random to be classified. One thing i can accept with Scarlettblue is once you show a whale you have initiative more than him, next time you wont be having it. They are highly competitive considering they are putting real money on the game, and intelligent f2ps end up showing them da wae.(Not saying spenders are dumb. They are like f2ps, some know what they are doing, some dont.). The case about level freezing can go either sides. I have seen lot of f2ps who have good initiative just because they knew what was coming and took some wise decisions. But like scarletblue mentioned as your cluster gets older, others who see the success of these freezers start doing the same since thing, but if you start early you will be always ahead. In my cluster(408-550 in HK) its like 8 -10 months old, Level 79-83 sage has one 108k, rest are lof of f2ps who chose to freeze and have from 80k -60k, then the normal leveling up guys. The 80ks-60ks are low in number and they can get a lot of advanced refines depending on which field the 108k is on and whether he choose to come to sage or not. Even though there are level freezing whales, most of them dont come to sage regularly. So the competition is with the freezing llow or medium spenders, and freezing f2ps. Smart f2ps can handle this field. Next sage level is 83-86 which has even more freezers(most of them started freezing late considering the success of some freezers), This field is heavily competitive with lot of freezers. You need to plan, break streaks and be smart to get top 1-3. Lot of 80ks, and the 100k i mentioned is at level 83 and can end up on this field some days. Level 86-90 is again bloodwars with 1-2 100ks(one of them never turns up for sage) and lot of 80-90ks. Level 90 above is not a f2p zone. That place is literally plagued by 140ks, 150ks etc.

But always taking some time to level freeze is good, rather than madly leveling up without much power. If you are a spending player definitely freeze, would work way better considering ingots can make up for lost power. If you are a f2p, you should definitely try freezing . If it works in your cluster and you could end up in top 1-3 in sage proceed freezing, or move your level up. I have f2ps in my server with 5k -6k first position initiative because they froze. This works till you get all level 8s or 9s in position one. Then you wil need a lot of advanced for leveling up further, or you have to save up long times to get directly from 5 to 9 or some big jumps like that. Main point is that you have to be patient stacking up those advanced refines, while losing out on power due to freezing. In a long term how this could end up is still up for question. In my bracket non freezing spenders can more or less match f2p freeezing intiatives as of now. But freezing f2ps at the end of the day can end up better than a non freezing f2p with high chance.

Hope it helped you to beat fire mains with genjutsu mirror.