First round matches are scheduled to be played starting from Tuesday November 21 at 8pm Eastern until November 22 at 2:59am Eastern. You have the whole night to play pretty much. Basically, after you are done with dinner and homework or other commitments, just come on. There's plenty of time that night.
Regardless of how many players you have, you gotta play - we gotta get the tournament going. Now, if no one from your team shows up, that's a penalty plus a loss, very different from one player showing so you better have someone show up. Don't worry, it's the first round so you won't be dropped for the tournament yet with one lost.