Well, slight correction on my part.

For F2P newbies, it's completely out of the question unless you no-life and/or get carried hard by whales/strong helpers in phase 2.

Phase 2 Super Elite Guards can drop like... 20k or 200k EP, I forget. A few of the high-level ones and you'd be set for the event. But they only last 30 minutes long and have upwards of several million HP, so... you do the math.