i'd like to know why madrid and lock in are considered mid.
for madrid:
each region sent their best teams (except maybe americas, which didn't matter because americas won the event)
cn: nobody is debating edg and fpx being the best there
apac: geng (runners up) and prx (top 3 merchants), best from their region easily. double elim wouldn't have meant shit.
americas: lev, 100t, nrg, loud all lost to sen, who won, and the only argument you could make is that nrg could have beat loud in playoffs but it doesn't matter
emea: th and kc objectively the best, navi proved multiple times throughout the year that they are worse than th and kc beat fnc. fnc was not gonna qual over th anyways, and fnc is better than navi so navi wouldn't qual either. kc were truly kickoff merchants, yes, but still top 2 in emea at the time
the only potential problem with madrid was loud farming china to make playoffs, but in the end it didn't matter because sen and prx sat them down. rightfully so, kickoff merchants and china were grouped, with only TH having a strong showing despite going 0-2.
for lock in:
fnc didn't drop a map until loud, and loud were 2 rounds away from reverse sweeping fnc. none of the teams at the event were as good, only the overall placements could have been better (nrg over navi/drx) but fnc would have won in all scenarios and loud would have been the runner ups. both teams went on to win their regional season. single elim, but how is it mickey? who else would have won?