why does EMEA get 4 slots again? One team region KEK
There's quite a chance that LOUD would have gotten grouped if they didn't win Americas. They would have had to get past NRG/EDG, or EG/DRX. And looking how mediocre they looked its really possible they would have gotten grouped. Also your argument kind of goes against you as well. 3rd or 4th slots are not supposed to do well in a tournament of top 3/4 of EMEA, Americas and Pacific + top 2 China. The fact that you treat those as equals to your best already tells quite a lot.
I think Loud would have a better chance if they didn't win Americas, Less said in an interview that because they won americas they expent too much time without practicing, cus teams didn't really wanted to practice in Japan, so they went to their games "cold" also, they coulnd't even play rankeds, cus internet in Japan was awful, Aspas was trying to stream rankeds while having 30% packet loss.
Dude you can literally open Aspas last VOD and skip through it to see that he has packet loss in the entire VOD look: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1840438172?t=4h28m37s
And why would Less lie about teams not wanting to prac? also imo teams that play matches first in that event format have an advantage, for instance, EG played 2 matches before Loud played their first match, so EG was already used to the stage and had the momentum.