Am i dumb?

Why would tier 2 leagues winners go straight to playoffs semifinals while the franchise teams have to play group stage to qual? Wtf?

Yes

shhhh its the Leo Fahria system

is it not play-ins instead of playoffs?

The fun part is some Tier 2 teams WILL beat Tier 1 teams and will be exciting, so I won't complain about it. The shit T1 teams in the bottom of the groups just prove they're not worthy anyways and are straight up irrelevant.

they qualify to play-in, the teams in group stage that does not get top 2 in their group go to play-in. None gets eliminated in group stage. Group stage is basically fighting for instant playoffs qualification

tf are you talking about