EX raid questions

So I finally got a pass for tomorrows EX raid and I've got a few questions.

Does gym control matter? Some people I've talked to says no, but looking at a few videos on YouTube makes me unsure if that is true. One person said that during the EX raid, people without a pass can still battle the gym as usual. Is this true. If gym control matters and people can battle the gym during our EX raid, could people change the colour of the gym between raids so that a blue team can get extra balls for gym control by playing first, then let a red player take over the gym and let the red team do the raid so they get extra balls and so on? Does Mewtwo (or Ho-oh) have roughly the same distance as the current legendary beasts when you throw the balls? Apart from the already asked questions, do any of you who have already done this raid (or know a lot about them) have any suggestions?

P.S. I hope everyone who hasn't got an invite yet get one next time, and hopefully not to one that takes place at noon on a friday (it's really made things difficult for people here in Sweden).