It combines stage 1's results though lol, so in AMER at least 3 teams will probably end 5-5 and it'll come down to map/round diff for the final 1-2 playoff spots
I don't think thats a great way to phrase it, because the 1st and 2nd half (using half to remain neutral in usage) will have huge meta differences, if it was just 1 split like it was last year, no major changes would be made in the middle of it
Stage 2 is ending the round-robin we have start in stage one. You can still have 11 team ending in 5-5 (And even if you though it was only intragroup they could all have end 2-2)
To me stage 1 should have been intragroup for so many reason...