Yeah unfortunately est is the most active timeslot. Sometimes there are at least 7+ Going for the top at the very end. Personally I'm happy with top 4-5.
Most frustrating is you can be top 3 and then last 10-12 min you'll get sniped back to back being locked out the entire time and take 6-10 and there's nothing you can do because your locked out.
If they can get these next updates right, I think we will be looking at a Rock Paper Scissors type meta where you'll have to have a certain time of team in order to defeat another specific type of team....instead of just same power level like it is now. This will greatly reduce sniping, and will also make ppl expand rosters in order to compete at the top since we will all need multiple arena lineups to compete top 10. At least this is what I hope happens, will be a ton of fun, even if f2p can't compete at the top for a long time it will be well worth the wait. Based off how many different factions there are and how many different types of toons there are....speed, aoe, counter, stealth, turn meter.....it would allow for unlimited different setups letting us all farm what we want instead of what we have too.