I am so vibing with you right now 
Same here I had misunderstood their date label and pulled 10 more Firetails out of the Industry Window and fitted them for Abyssal 1v1’s and found out they were over. Spent the rest of my money turning them into lowsec fits, no problem.
ACTUALLY this would ruin it for me. I like that it was just a little event with it’s own prizes. I just wish we could see the end-results in game somewhere. I ranked in the 210’s somewhere. I would have loved to see who was top Frigate PVPer.
SAME in Hek. That was a wild thing to watch. I actually had to set my clone to Rens to buy my Comets and Firetails because someone (me) bought up all the Ghoul nosferatu’s and relisted them for a scammy price. 
@Black_Pedro has an awesome breakdown about the problems of Abyssal pvp here:
It had a big effect on other parts of the game, 1v1’s Frigates especially killed Faction Warfare and lowsec PVP in general. This is basically no different when the entire game would take a break for a couple weeks around the Alliance Tournament imo but also a reason why we shouldn’t let it be permanent. Enjoy it while it lasts and look forward to next time.