What frustrates me about the Arena matching is something different...the types of players. I generally see 2:

1) players (often like myself) that create god-awful teams to so they can complete the 2 missions.

2) players that create OP teams for "testing".

Personally, I don't like the Arena. I wanna get my 2 missions done, and leave. I'm often embarassed about making terrible teams, but it's what the missions require of me, so I make the best of it with the ninja I have. But most of the time, it takes over an hour (sometimes 2-3) to get through it. It seems like more and more players use the Training section to showcase their competitive teams--teams I couldn't beat even WITHOUT the mission constraints.

The result is, both the Ranked section and Training section are used competitively, making the activity unplayable for those of us just trying to get Activity/Arena Points.

My suggestion:

Either create a 3rd section for getting points...maybe give it an AI opponent,

OR

restrict Training battles to players that satisfy at least 1 mission requirement.

OR

give a non-buff penalty to players that don't satisfy mission requirements: --1 requirement met: all ninja acupunctured for the 1st round; --no requirements met: all ninja chaosed for the 1st round.

The Arena really is a big jumbled mess the way it is. I personally don't test ninja there, but I can understand their need:

Players that are trying to build a decent team are going to try to use the best ninja they can...and they need solid teams to compete against to really tell if their tactics are viable.

but then you have the mission-players:

making teams with very focused criteria, and very limited ninja that can fulfill that criteria and still be at least halfway decent as a lineup.

Everyday for months I send my main out solo 10-20 times to give my fellow mission-players a break. They're profoundly grateful...meanwhile the testers are generally shocked (and sometimes angry or derisive)--which at first makes me feel upset because i'm just trying to help (and there aren't many of us that are), but now i feel like we're just bunched together when we really shouldn't be.

(btw, I don't feel sympathetic at all to the plights of Training players that throw everything they have at others just because they have nothing better to do. Picking on people because you're bored is just desp|cable--there's no justification for that!)