Hmm, I don’t get the point of second part of group stage. Seems it should actually be part of playoffs stage
It actually makes more sense as part of the group stage. Previously, group standing determined UB/LB position, which it now doesn’t anymore.
But, unless I misread the format, it still determines UB/LB for playoffs stage
Yes, exactly, that’s what I meant. Previously group stage was elimination and UB/LB placement combined, and now it’s effectively still like that, one weekend, just split in phase one: elimination, and phase two: UB/LB placement.
Or did I misunderstand something?
There’s something like playoffs in the first weekend (group stage) with 1st place vs 3rd/4th place like usual. this will decide the upper/lower bracket for second weekend
I think the second part of group stage should be put in second weekend
But why exactly?
Man fuck that schedule. Spread out over a month? Really? I mean I can understand logistics maybe, but shit I miss the week and done TIs
I don’t really see the downside, unless you want to watch it in person. Dedicating a whole week in person is much easier than 3 weekends if you live across the world.
But if you’re not watching in person, I do see their reasoning and find it much better that they’re trying out 3 weekends instead. I feel like if it was like this from the very beginning and changed to “only one full week” now, we’d have the exact equal amount of complaints.
Time to look for Seattle tickets
It’s always been the case that only the hardcore fans watch group stages because there’s so “little” at stake. They say they’re trying something and I think it’s pretty smart. Try to make as many matches meaningful for elimination as possible, so the average person feels like something is at stake and can choose their group to watch based on which team they like, which is then also not an overwhelming time commitment.
Let’s be honest here, Group Stage could be the shittiest production quality or whatever and hardcore pro scene fans would still watch it. But like 80% of the playerbase of the game itself doesn’t even care about the pro scene that much, and only tune in casually, if at all.
I totally understand them trying out a different format to try to convert more players to esport watchers.
Great to see Valve continuing to iterate on the format to test out fixes to common problems. Looking forward to making it out for the playoffs and finals!
Anyone wanna do a Lemmy meetup? xD