That's a... bit of a tough pill for everyone in-universe to swallow. Some might believe it, but I can almost guarantee that vast majority of players (mine included) are just going to assume this is some hoax or an elaborate game event and nothing more. From an OOC perspective it works because I've played games like .Hack where this sort of thing is to be expected. However, those three get to be "Champions" and no one else? Where does that leave the rest of us who didn't get to start off as members of the clan? Are we just going to be a supporting cast for what will clearly be the three main heroes? That might not be very appealing to most players, you know. At least in Ready Player One the Egg could be found by literally anyone. It wasn't some "Chosen One" narrative like this seems to be.

[b]EDIT:[/b] I just wanted to add this to clarify that I am in no way against this plot. I'm just pointing out what others might take away from this.