Oh my goodness, I can't believe I won my first tournament, and no gems spent! Must be new player luck cos I hardly have any special or gem animals!
I breezed thru every round with 1-2 tries until stuck on Ruby for over a day, finally Plutopus got it. Then ancient sloth 7 got Treent on second try, and Paradise Parrot 14 won the final round on first try.