No, it should not be the parameters, I have seen some members accepted on the campaign even though there are merit requirements, there are good posters who don't have enough merits at the time of the application but they are accepted because they are good quality posters, for every rule, there's always an exception.

Bounty managers are looking for merits for the last 90 days I remember applying for one campaign and I have no merit on that period but still got the nod of the manager, bounty managers look on quality posts more than anything else.