We will be reserving a portion of the NFTs for our future players who are late to the party. The rest will be up for grabs

Sorry op, I don't know if I'm a noob in this matter, what do you mean by "reserving a portion of the NFTs for our future players"
Sorry, maybe later my interpretation will be different from what you want to emphasize here.
Because what's playing in my mind is that you will pay NFTs to the players who will be qualified in accordance with the criteria you are looking for,
is that what you mean?