Well, yeah, there's exceptions to every rule, but for the majority of seasonals, the competition is extremely fierce, and there is often a huge gap between rank 1 and rank 2 (that usually suggests that rank 1 is cheating by account sharing/botting, or no lifing). Or that the second person just wants to keep his second place instead of going for first which he will never win ;)
There is no tangible difference at all between spot #2-#100, so there's no reason at all in just wanting to maintain #2. But being #2 is much cooler for the e-peen than being #100