If that’s the case, then you should also be able to do the other way around (play poorly in stage 1 and pop off stage 2 and make champs), the odds of winning out in stage 1 and winning out in stage 2 are pretty much identical; the biggest problem with wiping the slate for stage 2 is that you don’t have time to run another round robin, so you could get absolutely fucked by having a strong group stage 2 while a weaker group gets more qualification spots
masters and champs are sadly not equivalent, its way more financially and reputationally beneficial to make it to champs
i do agree that riot making massive map/agent changes in the middle of the season makes it hard to stay consistent and its very odd
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