You complete all the quests and do no better than iron. Unacceptable disgusting and totally effed up
Why would that be unacceptable?
Completing all the quests is not something exceptionally hard, except for very small beginning cities.
80% of all players do not get above iron league. If you are in iron league, all it means is that 20% of players got more extra currency than you did(better luck or spent diamonds).
Or made better/other choices. If one tries going for certain daily prizes one tends to go for the chests/orbs with the best chances of getting those.
But when one just plays for the goal of getting all 9 artifacts the best strategy is to constantly go for the chests/orbs that offer the most progress/currency.
This last event had the 21 for 1 point progress and the 42 for 2 point progress as the cheapest ones there, with the 24 for 1 point progress and the 70 for 3 points progress after that.
Just going for those makes it far more likely to get there, but one has to accept the lower value of prizes and lower chances of getting the daily rewards.
(EDIT)
I tend to do just that and I have almost always managed to get 9 artifacts, though not always the 2nd base. The only times I did not manage were once when I was too busy to regularly collect the dropped currency and once when I was just not too interested and only 1 time by being just very unlucky.