Player rating for tournaments across all installments of Heroes.

Not so. Two players, having no chance at tournament leadership, will not create a cooperative :) That is a Dragon Utopia. A cooperative is one strong real player who shares their Walkthrough with others... This is what I would like to avoid.

Not necessarily. I have facts—but I won't be able to prove them without naming names. And if I name them, I'll be the bad guy :) and not on this resource. Normal players who are friends, knowing that there are also normal players there, consult each other because they don't know—maybe you guys are consulting too. Therefore, they do scouting together, share ideas—then each completes it on their own. But that is enough to call it a cooperative. Let's say they are mid-tier. Nevertheless, some of the players who come after them would be collectively pushed down by the POSITION system. What's wrong with that?