User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Sorcerer Magazine, Issue 45: September 2015/@comment-94.71.39.253-20151004062152/@comment-25111584-20151004104950

I guess people make different assumptions when putting forth their thoughts about Battle Arena. Would definitely like to know what others assume. Here are mine:
 * The battles are friendly bouts, not death matches, but grievous injuries are not enough for a defeat. Not even mutilation. The combatants only lose upon fainting, which is normally due to running empty on MP or suffering damage past their endurance level. Consider there to be an insta-heal after the battle if you want. Some of the implications would be as follow:
 * While any normal referee would force Erza to accept defeat upon losing all her senses, that does not apply here. So that testament to her endurance is perfectly acceptable.
 * As this is a friendly bout, extremely special moves which require a substantial sacrifice would be discounted. For example, Gray and Lyon would normally never lose in mortal combat against equals as, even though Iced Shell doesn't guarantee a victory, it certainly makes a loss impossible. Thus, moves like Iced Shell and Recompense Summoning would be ignored.
 * One takes into account as much of the combatant's personality as possible as long as it doesn't compromise the battle. Wendy and Lucy don't just decide not to fight as they don't want to hurt each other. On the other hand, you do not get to say that Lucy will just act like a General rather than fighting on the frontlines as that is not Lucy. For example, despite considering LDSM to extremely versatile, I won't take this point into account in a vs. battle featuring Laxus as that just isn't his style.