In the interest of not ruling anything out...
Gary/Matt (pink hair/father-son) do not have checked luggage tags on their backpacks. The biggest problem with them is that they're in the same place as Herb/Nate (Globetrotters), who do have tags on their backpacks.
Also, in terms of carry-ons being tagged on international flights, has it been completely ruled out that teams could have flown in via Toronto?
woden, I can only answer that from my own perspective. Here are the nonstop flights from Toronto to Las Vegas on the morning of August 7:
US160 0850 1026
AC591 (codeshare UA8417) 0935 1115
WS 918 0830 1016
That's a lot of flights and probably influences Chateau's public statements that Toronto was viable. It still is, but there is the major problem of "how do you get there?".
The issue has never the ability to get from YYZ to LAS. The issue has been the connecting flight to get from a major European airport to Toronto in the correct time frame to connect with any of the above, meaning arrival before 7am. The same-day answer is the null set. I have checked LHR, LGW, CDG, PRG itself, AMS, CPH, ZRH, FRA, DUS, MUC, FCO and VIE, which include the 10 largest airports in Europe because Moscow splits traffic to 3 airports). I get a total of 28 nonstop daily flights from those airports to Toronto, but not a single one gets there within 12 hours of the right time frame. All flights land in the afternoon or early evening. This is not surprising if you think about it.
Flights from any European city to Toronto are into the jet stream and almost 4 hours more than the 6 hour time difference (except for LHR and LGW at a 5 hour time difference). When do flights typically leave from Europe for the U.S. or Canada? Not in the middle of the night, that's for sure because they would land very early in the morning. They do not leave until mid-morning, so by definition they will arrive after noon. Flights tend to stop departing for U.S./Canada late afternoon for evening arrival. So nobody should be surprised that there is on reasonable way to use Toronto as a connecting point. The existence of a nonstop from Prague is interesting, But OK102 is 1115 1430, way late for the right connections and way to arrive a day early to hide out and wait for them.
