[quote=@TheUnknowable]
My powers aren't really useful in battle, so my guy's probably at a bigger disadvantage than Manuel.  I could find him afterwords and make him relive his childhood trauma, but in battle, I'll just have to rely on my martial arts.
[/quote]

The Arena, like the fighting aspect of the Arena is nightly but it's also voluntary. If a meta doesn't want to participate they don't have too. There are scheduled times for different metas (or possibly groups of metas) to use the Arena for training. People don't pay for meta-soldiers who can't use they're powers so the Center needs to train them. Since the Arena is one of the few places were abilities work it is a natural option. If you don't have a combat related ability you'd likely train more in the Auction House since it's filled with a variety of things that could be used to train non combat related powers.

Oh and for guy with the release your burden ability he'd likely be part of a bunch of lab tests where they'd force him to swap memories with someone or alter there mind so they could figure out how to do it without him. Just a heads up.