Not a play report — I only read the access flow on the page, so take this as a first-impression note on your question 1 🎮
For a pair, the friction multiplies before round one: both people need an account, both need to activate a key, and the 48-hour window starts on activation, so a friend who activates tonight but can’t play until the weekend has already lost it. In our browser arena, the biggest drop-off was always “someone has to set something up before the match exists”, not the match itself.
Can a host invite a friend into the lobby before that friend has activated their own key, or does each player need to finish activation first?