What on earth was the thought process here? This is a garbage format.

You have so many existing formats to copy and you create this monstrosity where the 2nd best team can go out if they hit the 1st best in their group.

And not having double elim on the last game when you are only letting one through?

God I hope Riot fixes this, let the top two teams in their group through.

Guild 2-1 VG

While this is definitely a match that Giants can take on the right day, it somewhat feels like they are coming out of what has been a hotstreak from being a new team on the scene with great reads on their opponents. Recently however, they are the ones that have been getting read and exploited and I expect Guild's consistency to win out.

ACE 2-1 SMB

Been blown away by SMB this tournament. Their defaults and fundamentals look airtight and they are further advantaged by none of the EU teams having practice against their style.

With that said it feel impossible to bet against Acend right now, at least within EMEA. While they haven't looked perfect from a strategic pespective, cNed, Zeek and Starxo just deliver this team rounds with outrageous consistency and their mid-rounding is wonderful.

Easily a game that can go either way, no one should be underestimating SMB at this point.

SEN 2-0 Rise.

There is zero reason this should be close. There is some explosivity to Rise but it's not consistent and definitely not enough to deliver them 13 rounds in a map against NA's best.

TSM 2-1 NV.

The yay signing for NV really means this can go either way, but historically this has been a good stylisitc matchup for TSM and they are in excellent form at the moment. It's the kinda game where NV can make the right strategic plays and lose rounds anyway.

Will say I've also never been the biggest believe in this NV team, they have a high peak, but I've seen them lose too many big, winnable matches.