You'll be at disadvantage not trying to get some extra tokens. That's just how the game is designed. But you can still "survive" (but NOT truly enjoy anything really) with the free 35 tokens you can get each month.

You should not expect many wins in this case, just try to qualify for the next level, or tank every other season to spare tokens, cash and attribute points.

So, you either pay tons of real cash and win 95% of your games (not recommended), or get extra free tokens through ads and do fairly well, or hang around, take your time, tank a lot and merely survive.