Before revision:  The empirical collective strategy reproduces the theoretical equilibrium with striking accuracy for small  N, while for larger N the quality of the fit deteriorates. As a consequence, the same game exhibits lottery-like and game-of-skill features, depending on the collective size of the bidding pool .
After revision:  The empirical collective strategy reproduces the theoretical equilibrium with striking accuracy for small N, while for larger N a qualitatively different distribution is observed. We interpret this result as the emergence of two different phases, one in which adaptation is feasible and one in which it is not .