anyone whose played beta understand how this works? i know we all become adventurers again but do we need to rewin the lottery as well as have to completely restart our rank?

Yes

Yes my clan gathered up all the sigils to convert back to a shadow. They were pretty determined to transition back to the shadows.

yeah we did as well, didnt require a signet per person this time, only 1 for every 2 members

I didn't even get any yet lol which is sad being leader. My clan had them ready to convert almost immediately.
Been having to purge my clan members by level and being active. My clan keeps getting to like 97+ members.

same, we were top 5 on Eternal Conflict (im leader) but to many inactives so i purged us down to about 40 and now were back to 69, lol