what has Fnatic done recently besides fail to qualify for EMEA Challenger Playoffs

i honestly like your pool selection better than mine in terms of actual balancing, I'm just not sure if Riot will actually make considerations/reallocations based on region strength until after VCT 2021 ends, which is why I didn't take past performance into account.

let's see what happens!

the idea behind putting EMEA #1 in a "worse pool" is that while Acend is EMEA's #1 seed, they would be ranked as the "second best" team from EMEA; consider that if Gambit had lost to Envy, Gambit would've been EMEA #1 while Acend would've been EMEA #2

and I do agree with your second point, but my guess is that Riot will wait until after VCT 2021 ends to make considerations like that about regions

let's see what happens!

i'm considering EMEA #1 as EMEA's "second seed" since an EMEA team won Berlin, which is why I have them in pool B

i have BR #1 and SEA #1 above KR #1 because BR and SEA have 2 spots, while KR only has 1, which likely means that riot considers them "stronger regions", even though i do personally think that VS is (significantly) better than both X10 and VKS

hey you had the right winner and score

oh I definitely think KR is better than SEA, but for the purpose of seeding it doesn't make sense for riot to give SEA 2 spots and KR 1 spot, and then turn around and give KR a higher seeding than SEA's #1 seed

i don't think so, it's likely that acend, as a #2 seed, would've been in pool C since they probably wouldn't be put above #1 seeds from smaller regions (KR, JP, LATAM)

and i don't see how you think i'm giving sentinels a higher seeding?

in fact, the potential groups I proposed would actually be a possible drawing under your format as well

Pools make it so we don't get something like NA vs NA and seeds make it so we don't get something like Master's 3 Winner vs NA 1

while my idea doesn't exactly have that, I did specify that groups couldn't have more than one team per region to avoid NA vs NA, EMEA vs EMEA, etc.

in that case, this actually ends up functioning almost the exact same as my proposed idea if you think about it!

my Pool A consists of the #1 seeds from your pools, my Pool B consists of the #2 seeds from your pools, etc.

i do know how well they've been placing, and yes KR did better than SEA at Berlin but is it really fair to punish SEA because of visa issues? F4Q got a "9-12th" finish despite playing miserably and Bren (now Secret) got a 13-16th finish because of visa issues out of their control

F4Q did nothing to earn their 9-12th finish and there's a very reasonable chance they would've ended up 13-16th if not for Bren's visa issues

possibly, my reasoning was that since Gambit won Berlin, they would be considered the "first seed" from EMEA, while EMEA #1 would be the "second seed" and EMEA #2 would be the "third seed"

assuming that groups would have one team from each pool, this could lead to some really unbalanced groups

for example you could have stronger groups with 4 #1 seeds, or weaker groups with multiple LCQ winners

possibly, but I think this is more likely

again it's just a hypothetical

how are acend getting punished? if gambit hadn't won masters, acend would've been EMEA #2 and would've been in pool C instead of pool B

i'm not sure why you think getting moved up from pool C to pool B is a "punishment"

then why does SEA have 2 spots and KR only has 1?

and if you actually read my post, I explained why I put EMEA #1 in the second pool; since Gambit won Berlin, it will likely be considered the "first seed" from EMEA, pushing Acend and Fnatic down to being considered as 2nd and 3rd seeds

this makes sense because if Gambit had lost to Envy, Gambit would've been EMEA #1 and Acend would've been EMEA #2,

btw, if Envy had won Berlin, I would've done the same thing with the NA teams: I would've had Envy in pool A as the Berlin winner, Sentinels in pool B, 100T in pool C, and the NA LCQ winner in pool D

riot gave SEA 2 spots and KR 1 spot, why would they consider KR "better" than SEA??

since there's 4 EMEA teams and Gambit would've likely been EMEA #1 if they hadn't won Berlin (I think?) it's possible that they'll push Acend and Fnatic down a pool since they are technically the second and third teams from their region

if this situation (WHICH AGAIN IS COMPLETELY HYPOTHETICAL) were to happen, my picks to make it out of groups would be Gambit (A), Envy (A), Sentinels (B), FURIA (B), Acend (C), Team Secret (C), Vision Strikers (D), and Team Liquid (D)

THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL BTW

if groups are made by drawing from 4 pools, here's an idea of what the groups could look like

i think it's possible that as the Berlin winner, Gambit could be considered "EMEA #1" and as a result, Acend and Fnatic could be considered EMEA #2 and #3, respectively, which is why I have Acend in Pool B despite being the "#1" seed from EMEA

Pool A (#1 seed from regions that have 2 slots, minus EMEA since the Berlin winner is from EMEA):
Berlin Winner (Gambit Esports)
NA #1 (Sentinels)
BR #1 (Team Vikings)
SEA #1 (X10 Esports)

Pool B (#1 seed from regions that have 1 slot, plus EMEA #1 since they were excluded from Pool A):
EMEA #1 (Acend)
KR #1 (Vision Strikers)
JP #1 (Crazy Raccoon)
LATAM #1 (KRÜ Esports)

Pool C (remaining #2 seeds):
EMEA #2 (Fnatic)
NA #2 (Envy)
BR #2 (Keyd Stars)
SEA #2 (Team Secret)

Pool D (LCQ Winners):
EMEA LCQ (Team Liquid)
NA LCQ (Cloud9 Blue)
SA LCQ (FURIA)
APAC LCQ (FULL SENSE)

each group would consist of 1 team from each pool, with no group consisting of more than one team per region

here's an idea of potential groups:

Group A:
Berlin Winner (Gambit Esports)
LATAM #1 (KRÜ Esports)
NA #2 (Envy)
APAC LCQ (FULL SENSE)

Group B:
NA #1 (Sentinels)
JP #1 (Crazy Raccoon)
EMEA #2 (Fnatic)
SA LCQ (FURIA)

Group C:
BR #1 (Team Vikings)
EMEA #1 (Acend)
SEA #2 (Team Secret)
NA LCQ (Cloud9 Blue)

Group D:
SEA #1 (X10 Esports)
KR #1 (Vision Strikers)
BR #2 (Keyd Stars)
EMEA LCQ (Team Liquid)

Edit: some clarification about why I pushed down EMEA #1 to Pool B despite being a top region: I'm not trying to "punish" Acend for EMEA winning Berlin; my reasoning is that if Gambit HADN'T won, they would have been EMEA #1 and Acend would have been EMEA #2. as a result, since EMEA earned an "extra" slot from Berlin, I'm considering Gambit as EMEA #1, Acend as EMEA #2, and Fnatic as EMEA #3, and seeded them accordingly (Gambit in Pool A, Acend in Pool B, Fnatic in Pool C). I also do agree that KR is stronger than BR and SEA, but since BR and SEA have 2 seeds while KR only has 1, I think it's likely that KR will be put in the same pool as other regions with only 1 seed (LATAM and JP), while BR #1 and SEA #1 will be put in Pool A since they are from regions with 2 seeds.

I personally think that Riot will wait until VCT 2021 is over to factor regional performance into their decision-making for future international events, and I very well could be wrong, but we'll see what happens!

I want to emphasize that this seeding is not based on the strength of individual teams, but rather just based on regional allocations of slots; for example, if I did it based on past performance, I would have Pool A consist of Gambit, Sentinels, Acend, and Envy (Envy getting a higher pool placement due to strong performance at Berlin)

"With the scoreline at 10-9 in favor of 100 Thieves, Rise fought hard for another two rounds before capturing rounds 22 and 23 to tie up the series and send the series to Haven, the final map."

maybe reword "before capturing rounds 22 and 23" to "before 100 Thieves captured rounds 22 and 23"?

the current wording implies that Rise won those rounds to tie up the series

also "Oxygen's loss to Guild meant Futbolist would remain in the running for Champions after today's matches." this doesn't really make sense either, the OXG vs. Guild game has nothing to do with Futbolist staying in the running today

"Down 10-5, Guild solidly took the B site. Oxygen immediately called out a timeout, but wasn't able to stop the bleeding as they lost the next six rounds. Tied at 10-10, Oxygen added up one more round. Guild then stole the next two to find the 13-11 win and complete the comeback."

might want to reword this

first sentence implies that Guild took the round, putting it at 10-6. OXG calling a timeout before losing the next six would imply that they were then down 10-12?

also OXG was down 10-11 when they finally won another round, they didn't do it when it was tied

"TL ban Icebox; GUILD ban Ascent; GUILD ban Ascent; TL ban Icebox; TL pick Bind; GUILD pick Bind; GUILD pick Split; TL pick Split; TL pick Breeze; Breeze remains" ???

XSET 2-1 LG
13-9
10-13
13-7

190-220 ms
144hz
d1 currently, last act i climbed from being p1 to peaking d2

"Gambit requested a timeout at this point, but it favored Blaze as they took three rounds, the third due to a 1v2 retake from Izzy on A. Gambit just held on to the map 13-11. This win placed them on match point, a map away from the trophy."

um no? match score was tied 1-1 how is that match point

edit: sorry if that came off rude i'm just confused

link in first sentence links to EMEA playoffs instead of SEA playoffs

beginning sentence says 3-2, it was 3-1

yikes

sen doesn't drop maps in grand finals btw

so SEN is going to not even qualify for Berlin because they want another NA team to win it? that makes no sense...

you think SEN will magically crumble after not dropping a map in masters?