I supposed 1mil merit points would be better than maybe setting up these ws as BCNM quests that would require 18 ppl to fight (each needing an entry item), special proc conditions during fight with 1 win resulting in only 1 item that can then be used to upgrade 'a' specific WS 1 time. So you'll need to do that 5x to max 1 ws to max levels. For 18 people, that would be 18x5 = 80 BCNM fights.

Did I just figure out a better/longer way for SE to give us TIME SINK?