Era 16 max for ftp?

You can't reach Luke Lv17 until you clear all Battle Lv1 stages.
There's a specific material needed for the 100% reward in Battle Level 1, and using that will get you to Lv17.

I have 100% all of the t1 coliseum battles already, that's how I got mine to 16. It's those stupid little square things that are preventing my progress, as the battles don't reset tiers between the times that they show up for. Since I am t2 on every boss, I can never get the t1 rewards again. Stupid CG

you will likely get the mat needed for lvl 17 next week after the marque event is over. 

It seems really wierd that you can't progress after reaching lvl 16. After getting all the resources from stage 1 you should be ale to do at minimum 10% damage to stage 2 bosses, to ensure that players are progressing, even if at very slow pace. Now im stuck at stage 2 where my chewie&Yoda don't spawn for some reason and I can't event get 2% with lvl 16 Luke. There is really no point for me to play colliseum right now other than to complete the daily mission.

There's been datamine that seems to indicate that subsequent marquee events will provide more materials in tier 1. It seems that CG wanted to give the spenders a headstart at the beginning of the Era. 

I agree. It seems like level 17 luke is hidden behind a week or two of events or progress. This system of coliseum sucks, but hopefully it will get better eventually, and maybe CG will incentivise more work put into it; at the moment coliseum is just one battle for the 2% and done.  It would also be very nice if they allowed us to buy the additional mats we needed with era currency, but CG is too set on loving whales to do that.