Arena event questions

Yay it's my first arena event! I have a few questions regarding it though:

1. Does the team you pick matter? I picked team ice hockey but then thought what if it matters? My question is doing the winning team get something more? Because I think snowboard is a lot more popular...
2. When we actually are playing our one game for the day, are we racing agasint other people in the world or just bots still?

I just won my first race anyway ;D