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I don't think there was any advantage for OpTic today against Zeta so I guess they will do the same for the grand finals. If it was a 6 map pool maybe they would give Loud the only map ban but with 7 maps it's pretty balanced
They got an extra day, Optc had to play a bo5 where they had to show more strats
loud pick + ban without optic banning, so they can pick their best map before optic banning it
in a normal md5 yes, but in this occasion, loud ban and pick, and then optic bans, at least this is how vct BR did
correction, loud ban + pick, optic pick and loud ban, so optic doesn't have any bans in this series, this is how vct BR did
only works like this in VCT BR, not in other regions, and I'm pretty sure they use the EMEA format which is just that LOUD gets to pick whether to be team A (1st ban, 1st pick) or team B (2nd ban, 2nd pick, picks side for map 5)
it seems like the EMEA tournament rules have generally been used for international LANs, and in a Bo5 that would just mean that LOUD gets to pick whether they want to be team A (ban first, pick first) or team B (ban second, pick second, gets to pick side on map 5).
you could consider it an advantage that OpTic had to play a full Bo5 today being at risk of elimination while LOUD got a day to rest and watch the OpTic match, helping them potentially gather intel, prepare counterstrats etc.