What i meant was when you started playing Act wise (although general levels also tends to have benefits in the long run)
I know its ancedeotal but whatever, during the monorail i created my Freemium town and purchased Jesse Grass in it, by the end of the event i was 13 donuts away from the last prize (i had to grind my butt off though, couldnt buy it though as i had spent all my donuts on Jesse) point being is even if you start in Act III getting all the prizes is still doable, just very difficult.
The more characters you have the more possibilities you have at one point i had most of the characters premium and freemium and using all those characters into 3 mobs? takes strategy, however since then i got the glitch (double spawn) not sure if its still active but if it is it should help with the excess fighters on my team (however duplicating the glitch is unkown as of yet the exact requirements or trigger hasnt been properly discovered)
Keep at it until you get the groove of things eventually youl get there, good luck and happy tapping, for future reference AO or AOFIGO009 usually makes a Q & A AND STRATEGY THREAD ISSUE for most events, just keep an eye out for it.