Sentinels, G2 and F4Q are forced to play 4 different games due to Bren being unable to make it. This is kind of unfair to them as they will be revealing more of their playbook prior to playoffs. They will be playing the same teams over and over again. If they decide to change maps on the 2nd time to avoid being read, they will be revealing their map pool whilst other teams who win both first 2 games will play less and be at an advantage. At most, teams that will qualify from other groups will play 3 games whilst Group D is forced to play 4. This is not Brens fault but it does go against competitive integrity considering none of these teams did anything wrong. At the end of the day Valorant is a tactical shooter and this puts the 2 teams going forward at a tactical disadvantage.
Unfair for Sen, G2 and F4Q
To add on, this is how it would've looked like if there were bye rounds -
- F4Q makes it out of groups by winning a single bo3
- If 1. happens, SEN and G2 face each other twice with the second game being more important than the first
In hindsight, a double round robin really was the best option out of a bad situation.
correction:
- F4Q only makes out of the groups by winning 1 match by beating the best team in the world, or the team that just beat the best team in the world.
- if F4Q lose their first match then they have to fight for elim against a SEN or G2 who have EVERYTHING riding on that match. with all the fake beef g2 are creating they will claw back from the dead just to have another shot at SEN. and SEN are monsters at getting back from losing.
overall if F4Q makes out of this group via a BYE then that would be just as impressive as having a normal 2 win scenario for making playoffs.
Strat wise this is sounds unfair since playing same teams twice is exposing so much strat.
But the previous format need 2 wins (2 match) in a row to get 1st place
And win 2 times (3 match) to get 2nd place from LB
With this format, roughly you could get 1st place with 3 win, and 2nd place with 2 wins
Noy that much different, unfair indeed but it's the best option for this situation
there isn't much you can do when the tournament is strictly designed for a 16 team format and then a team suddenly drops out. only so much you can change on short notice without destroying competitive integrity, and i think the double round robin was a decent solution to the issue
it's not like there are only negatives to this either, in a double round robin the influence of an upset is reduced and its much more likely that the two BEST teams in the group will be moving on. there's way less randomness to account for. also, each team is already aware ahead of time exactly who they're going to be playing. there isn't any uncertainty regarding matchups, and they don't need to prepare for an extra team
it's not a perfect situation. but it's also not like having to play one more series is RUINING their chances at berlin
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