Hi, thanks for your feedback :)
Im currently working on an issue related to your second point to ensure brackets fill in lower pop regions, often as you said, there are not enough qualified fighters for a tournament and the player gets a bye through tot he final and automatically wins ojn occasion, due to the low sign up from the AI gyms in the area.
Also thanks for the heads up on the gender issue for school students, something i totally overlooked.
Aiming to fix both of these in the next update i drop.