All of you are terrible at discussing mechanics and are mostly wrong. The AI will auto hire everyone who has applied, so long as the roster is empty, up until the full hour and change before the battle, once the reinforcement window ends. So, if one person applies, and it hires him, it won't hire again, unless he retracts. The issue is most people don't apply for battles 19~ hours in advance. In regards to the Afk Raven battle, I think Ravens asked people to apply too late. However, I asked everyone on the roster to retract and reapply, and the last guy left on the roster to do it 2 hours before the battle. This left the roster temporarily empty, causing the AI to hire everyone who applied once again, which was 35 or so this time.