I'm consistently missing the second Grand arena sign up phase

oei701yhl5u8 wrote:

then there's a 24-hour review.  Right after that expires  boom- the event is already in progress. 

This is your issue.  There's a review period of an hour, then the sign up for 23 hours.  After that, you're locked out.  From how you're describing it, you believe the reviews 24 hours, then there should be sign up.

The GAC cycle is quite fixed.  Get into the swing of things and you shouldn't have the problem.