@JJewett10 Thanks and no worries! You should update the operating system for optimal performance overall. Here’s an Apple help page for that
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201541 you don’t need to upgrade to Ventura. In fact I wouldn’t because it currently has its own problems with the game. Just update Big Sur to 11.7.1.
For your freezing issue, enable vsync in the in-game options. It’s a known issue on some Macs with M1 chips
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201541