Strange, I did the second round twice:
- Once with 4 friends from wich one retreated, he killed mine and the other remaining friend and won.
- Once only my friend and me, we both a player char and a player compagnion. His two chars were dead, mine both alive and I won.
If you use a custom created from different friends I think they still count as player chars, even if they don't get played by other players tough. (Not sure if you mean, they played them or they just created them for you.)
