What I have observed from the weeks of it so far is; timer starts, some hundreds of hours prior. No mail that it's started, just notice it changes to "premliminaries". Then when it gets below 48 hrs, I'd guess like ~32?, the "join" lights up. But the join only lasts a few hours, then it's closed. (I don't know exactly how long, as I always join fast, then it's greyed out) Then if you missed that window, you are locked out til the next one. I believe that is something like 24hrs prior to the end of timer. The actual timer works on when the first selection happens, not the start of it. The actual first battles begin then at 8pm st., 8 hrs later. So, it is confusing. Again, no mail from Tynon during this process whatsoever.