I agree about the realm timer. It doesn't make sense to have it in place during the event. Would be nice to be able to try out different setups and if your group logs in different realms and the event dies out you can't play together.
i am personally not a fan of crossrealm-events but i believe the thought behind it is to play with other people that you usually play against. Not to build the most fotm setup and roflstomp around in the same teams you play with all day long anyways
that said, since i will only be playing one night this weekend, and my friends will be on the same night, we will still be playing in the same setup as always...but hopefully there willl be lots of nice smallmen vs smallmen fights
EDIT: I just remembered this part "start with a groupcap of 5 players per group and may or may not change that during the weekend". That definitely pushes groups away from having one player log hib for bard, while other play a different realm. While it would be possible to coordinate that, if the groupcap suddenly changes the option of doing something else (without abandoning the people logged in other realms) is gone. On the one hand it makes building fotm-setups with your friends harder, on the other hand it makes trying something new/different a huge risk. Kind of torn now if i like or dislike it