first seed is a nerf

not playing in the swiss stage is a huge nerf going into playoffs for multiple reasons:

• haven't played on stage yet (nerves)
• aren't used to the crowd/equipment
• not used to the new meta in officials
• not warm/dialed in
• added expectations pressure

There is also barely any prep time and barely any footage to go off, so that's not even an advantage.

being 2nd seed is just significantly better. Always has been, and this is true for every esport.

alr bro cope

i wouldn’t say every esport but it definitely seems the case right now.

Was the same last year, I didn't think it was going to be this year but it seems to be true

They have way more prep time because they aren't even playing for an nearly a week. You are out of your mind.
They have all the swiss stage footage to antistrat with which is like 2-3 games or 4-9 maps of footage to work off of.
If they get lucky and pick the right opponents, first seed has a much easier upper bracket match. XLG honestly just trolled the pick. If they went for the regional matchup with wolves which they have beaten comfortably before, they would have been fine IMO.
Not used to the new meta? This is literally just a revert to the pre-tejo meta which every single team at the event has more than enough practice on.

If you lose with

1. More prep time

2. More VODs to anti-strat

3. Getting more time to understand the meta

4. Having the suprise factor with completely new comps

Then you are just bad no excuse. If first time stage jitters was a reasonable excuse then FNATIC would win those guys have been in waay to many internationals to get stage jitters. Expectation pressure? So Sentinels should lose each match with the amount of extra pressure their entire fan base puts on them.

The format will have some questions on whether it's any good after this tournament. Your arguments against the buy are mostly valid such as nerves, not being used to equipment and the expectations being high. However, being warmed up is a matter down to them. Sure, Swiss Stage warms up your stage performance, but at a professional level, you should be able to warm-up before any match to have that mental arousal in-game.

As for not being used to the new meta in officials, anything can go right or wrong on the day on-stage. Teams will have been scrimming for hours a day to adapt to the new meta and develop a new playbook for their comps. And you have to remember that there was a solid 2-4 weeks buffer time from the Stage 1 grand final - of course, you can argue most teams won't be using all this time to develop strategies, but there is nevertheless ample time to practice new things.

The meta is actually so open now so anything can work as long as you have confidence in the agent synergy. It's not like certain teams are late to the party in going with the meta since anything can work if you have success in your scrims using a certain comp.

Lastly, the fact that #1 seeds can pick their opponent is a huge advantage since they can VOD review their opponents on every map they play in swiss to develop an anti-strat. 4-9 maps of gameplay is quite valuable to base your veto especially if you've got a deep map pool like G2. Serot mentions XLG trolling their pick and on paper it is what it is, but XLG have a bigger issue where they lost their key flash initiator player. YOU's assists and util to set up Rarga was actually huge and that's something that cannot be replaced easily. I feel bad for them since YOU left/was released for allegations from years ago (matchfixing which he upheld his ban for back then).

Maybe all should get groupstage.

Two diff version play off/swis?

i mean it's valid since specifically this is the first time that geng has played this split comp and fnatic is most definitely not prepared for that comp lmfao, it makes sense if the swiss stage has games that all maps will be played but it's not the case most of the time since geng only played more or less 4 maps

If they just had interesting comps its a huge advantage cuz u dont need to reveal anything

They are a pretty easy solution :
Put the 12 teams in 2 round of swiss, you will end up with :

• 3 teams in 2-0 (You put them in playofffs winner bracket)
• 6 teams in 1-1 (Most of them will go in playofffs lower bracket)
• 3 teams in 0-2 (They are out)
  Basically you pair the 6 team in 1-1 together, one of the winner will go to winner bracket while the 2 other will continue in lower.
  Since it's swiss, you will have a team in 1-1 with a better Buchholz than the other team in 1-1, this team will be able to pick their opponent, and the winner of this game will go to winner bracket while the looser is out (Wish is fair because it's supposed to be the best team in 1-1 or the team that beat the best team in 1-1)

So basically in that format when you loose in swiss, it doesn't reset in playoffs (Except for the best team in 1-1 wish is the sole exception), and the format is the following :

• Round 1 : team in 0-0 plays
• Round 2 : team in 1-0 and 0-1 plays
• Lucky loser round : Best team in 1-1 pick their opponent and the winner go in winner bracket (The other team in 1-1 will ply in playoffs)
• Gap
• Current playoffs system with 8 teams but first round is voided (The 4 remaining team in 1-1 plays together in lower, the 4 team in 2-0 and 2-1 plays together in winner)

The tremendous reason imo is like RRQ, FNC or G2, they all need to be used to new meta without tejo.

The reason about players personally reason like not warm/dialed in, is not the excuse for bad run.
I think RIOT have to consider that do not change patch earlier then single stage, include Master, its not fair to the team that wins the championship in the current patch.
They don't have chance to confirm the new line-up workable.