I tried just barely staying up in diamond for some weeks and I think (purely anecdotal) I then got paired with similarly slacking people. I also did the first lesson of the week as late as I could on the first day because then you enter a league with people that do that too, ie not the super competitive folks that rush into getting XP right away.

I ended up placing first in diamond with a very low score compared to what I’ve heard ppl need to get.