You did get a reply to your question. It's here.

Then can we all make a guess that those on the leaderboard with over 150 elders are either VERY lucky or what's the other choice

Are all of you looking at that darn leaderboard. There are quite a few with over 150 elders. How do you suppose they got them?

If the odds of getting the event that can give you over 50 elders is so rare then I want to know what the statistical probability of getting 70 -150 elders!!!!!!!

Those people cheated - there is no other way to get that many.

I think it would be nice that even though we can get only 50 totems that the additional ones would at least count as elders. The folks on the leaderboards will be the only ones who get there. It doesn't seem quite fair. Once you hit 50 there is no reason to keep them learning new skills. It is easy to loose interest in the game. The challenge is gone.

agreed