Is there a way to avoid getting sorted into a group in Full Marks? I would like to login before the Puzzling Potions event ends but at the same time I don't want to put my account at high risk.
There's no way to avoid getting sorted, except in some rare cases where an older version of the game still works (won't work for this current FM).
I have logged in multiple times during a FM event, and even won some of the rewards, all without getting banned. There are some ways of minimizing the risk of getting banned, though you are still taking a risk by logging in at all furing FM.
You get sorted at the time you log in, so don't log in at the beginning of the FM as this is when a lot of the "try-hards" are going to get sorted (the people who actually want to win will log on early so that they can maximize their points, and will very likely report people for cheating if they notice anything odd). I try to log on during the last day, so if you really wnt the puzzling potions reward, wait as late as you can before logging in.
Also, as far as I can tell, you have a small timeframe as soon as you log on to actually look at what your current group would be without actually getting sorted. This is because the game has to autosave first so that it can sync with the server. This means that you can check your group to make sure that the first place person is not cheating. If first place has a ridiculously high score, you will not want to be in that group as if they get reported, you will very likely get checked and banned as well. The game will autosave upon quitting in most cases, so you need to either turn wi-fi off or turn airplane mode on before quitting as this will prevent the game from sending an autosave over the internet.