Small things about the meliashmora, doing the story of Queen Serelyn, the Righteous Mother, that logic puzzle might do with having the amount of retainers reduced. If you get all of them, you'll end up with a lot of repeated clues. Maybe the line where the butler says "aah yes", could be extended that beyond this point, no more new clues can be gotten ? And lastly, maybe a hint could be added, after the costumes have been distributed, that you need to speak to merenir before the ball can start, which is not immediately obvious, instead it just feels like the quest has stopped. All in all very lovely quest though.
Imagine the feelings of the first at this point, the emotions. This is the ultimate prize of their sport. They won it. Circumstances entirely beyond their control affected the outcome, but because the game continued regardless they pushed on despite that... the joy, the euphoria of overcoming the odds and making the comeback win.
That's not a comeback win. Circumstances beyond your control affecting the outcome means that the outcome was beyond your control. If the outcome had not favored you I doubt you'd be pleased with the result. It's the same as complaining that certain skills/combinations are OP - if they are, in fact, OP, then it's not the fault of the ones who are fighting against it whether they win or lose. It's the fault of the admin for not making the playing field fair. No offense to Orael or anyone else, because hindsight is 20/20.
There's not really many real-life comparisons to online lag. If the goal in your scenario was to win the game despite the odds, then that could be a valid competition(though it sounds unsafe). But server responses don't affect everyone equally at all times, as would be the case on a bad playing field.
I would really prefer not to be given anything extra, thanks. I'm not interested in being that ascendant who got a bonus because his opponent was so close, and I dont want to be the guy people point at next year and say, "He got this, why dont I get it?!?!?!"