There is an easy fix for this. Well, easy in concept. At the end of each hour players store up part of the final payout based on their current rank. At payout they receive whatever they stored.
Example: held rank 1 for 3 hours, earned 20 crystals an hour
Dropped to rank 4 in 4th hour earned 10 crystals. Dropped to rank 20 for 5th and 6th hour earned 7 crystals per hour etc etc. Payout comes and their total for the day is granted.
No one would be interested in manipulating arena anymore. Rewards would be more fair based on offense and defense, not one long push to the top.
This would encourage more competitiveness, empower players to choose when and how to invest their attempts, and bring an end to these looking for shardmates to help me exploit payout times posts.
