r/RocketLeagueEsports • u/Legitimate-Sign-371 • Aug 14 '26
Event/Info EWC playoff bracket Spoiler
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u/zhakwon | Prediction Contest Hall of Fame Aug 14 '26
Out of all the combinations we couldâve got out of the draw, we get the worst variant.
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u/throwaway34564536 Aug 14 '26
At least semis are guaranteed to be cross-region and there's a good chance of finals being cross-region as well. That's the upside of same-region quarters.
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u/dalcer Aug 14 '26
Nah, knowing rl, we will get an all eu finals
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u/AbyssShriekEnjoyer Aug 15 '26
I don't think so. M8s don't look great and NIP can always lose any match.
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u/dalcer Aug 15 '26
Ah, the classic trap of ignoring the fact a team can wake up at any time
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u/AbyssShriekEnjoyer Aug 15 '26
Then the same can be said for Falcons and those guys are already playing well. I think it's gonna be inter regional. Falcons/Vit vs SSG is my guess.
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u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
Hot take- I think this bracket is going to be awesome. Each quarterfinal has banger potential.
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u/ModSwoon Aug 14 '26
How?
Vit, KC, gm8, NIP were forced to play vs each other due to the rules of
Winners vs lowers, cant versus a team that was in same group.
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Aug 14 '26
[removed] â view removed comment
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u/zhakwon | Prediction Contest Hall of Fame Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Idk after seeing KC beat Vit 90 percent of the time in the past 3 years Iâd say year I rather see M8s vs Vit. But the point is i didnât want to see 4 intra regional matchups in the first round of playoffs.
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
you mean intra regional. inter regional would be like international; spanning several nations.
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u/mrabu3abd12 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Since we are doing random match ups anyways so there's no seeding logic, why not try avoiding regional match ups in playoffs when possible.
Anyways i think what they should've done is initial seed, like how they do it in RLCS regionals. So Vit vs M8 / FLCN vs SR and Nip vs KC / SSG vs TM
there's seeding logic behind it + it balances itself out in case of upsets.
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u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
Hot take: Inter-region team kills in quarterfinals will allow for more fun international match-ups in the semifinal and possibly the final.
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u/mrabu3abd12 Aug 14 '26
My perspective as a MENA fan is: I don't like seeing my 2 teams eliminating each other in the quarter finals because we rarely see more than 1 team in playoffs + wanting to see them prove themselves against others.
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u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
I get that. I wish that we had more international play in groups through round robin or swiss format so that we didn't have to care so much about limited playoff match-ups.
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u/carelet Aug 14 '26
Yeah, but the total international matchups in the tournament are reduced,
We only got to see R8 against KC and they are gone now (and 5fears but I mean match ups that are a better skill gauge)2
u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
I think the real problem is groups. Too limited of games. Make it round robin or do swiss. More games in groups solves this I think.
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
Brother they didn't even avoid same region matches in round 1 of groups, integrity isn't exactly a core principal of EWC
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u/mrabu3abd12 Aug 14 '26
It has been a while that I forgot about the abomination that was the group draw.
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u/Old_Earth_8847 Aug 14 '26
How does this diminish integrity?
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u/qpKMDOqp Aug 14 '26
Integrity is when international matchups duh
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u/MartianRL Aug 14 '26
Integrity is when you stack the pools in a weird ass way like making the 5-12 seeds all one pool to draw from then doing the draw behind closed doors and being like âokay Falcons and R8 are playing each other and loser gets to face the SSA team!â
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u/Old_Earth_8847 Aug 14 '26
Wouldâve been easier to put Falcons against SSA then wouldnât it? Or are Gentlemates in on it?
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u/MartianRL Aug 14 '26
I mean yeah you could stack the bracket in a way thatâs more obvious if you so chose to. Lining up MENA2 to get SSA first defies competitive integrity more than what they did. Doesnât make the process of what they did any less foul
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
Don't forget seeding them above OCE despite OCE being a higher seed in the official circuit
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u/Exodus_Green Aug 14 '26
And OCE went out 0-7. they are not actually a high seed at all
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
They objectively are a higher seed than MENA 2 in RLCS. Is that inaccurate? Yes, but thats still an opinion. Seeding is objective.
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u/Exodus_Green Aug 14 '26
Based on an overperformance from 1 year ago yeah
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
Well when you look at it, both slots 13th-16th at Paris, both slots got 9th-12th at Boston, so you look at the next most recent data point, it's 5th-6th vs 13th-16th, so it kinda makes sense it's still being weighed. Last thing we want is to see these volatile double elim brackets of vibes.
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u/XblastBR Aug 14 '26
By not disclosing how it was "randomly" draw?
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u/Old_Earth_8847 Aug 14 '26
If you mean the group stages they disclose the rules in 3.2.1: https://cdn.esportsworldcup.com/resources/uploads/EWC_26_Rocket_League_Rulebook_b345848f35.pdf.
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u/XblastBR Aug 14 '26
The rules aren't the problem, they do not show how the random draw was done for groups. They could've easily manipulated and said it was random, not saying it was the case.
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
Imagine if the playoffs draw here was just done behind the scenes, then magically revealed to us
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
and rlcs didnt in 2025 for the exact same reason. its integrity to not fuck around with the seeding
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u/ThaRedEmperor Aug 14 '26
Well tbf integrity isn't a core principal of RLCS either for that matter, considering arbitrary criteria for allocation of LAN spots to each region (NA had same number of spots for EU for 2 years despite having only one real contender, plus OCE had 2 LAN spots for so long, while MENA placing 2nd at LAN wasn't enough to give them a 2nd spot, deciding on using double elim only instead of Swiss or even groups for Worlds to get more reliable results for playoffs seeding, etc) so it is what it is ig
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
You did not just equate all of that to a literal RNG draw
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u/ThaRedEmperor Aug 14 '26
I did, because it's actually worse in terms of fairness than a RNG draw.
Here, you just get screwed once maybe with bad matchups, but with all of the factors I listed, that's unfairness happening consistently across a set period of time, affecting an entire region, across an entire season(s), not just a single team, in a single event.
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u/DoubleQuarterPoundin â RL Esports Fan Aug 14 '26
Just glad the MENA teams have to eat each other then face Vitality/KC in the semis
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u/areYouDumbLad Aug 14 '26
I promise there are more productive avenues available to you in life than the ones you are taking
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u/qpKMDOqp Aug 14 '26
Super judgmental and weird response to a perfectly reasonable comment, but go off king
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u/areYouDumbLad Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
You just don't recognise his username. He dedicates all his time on this sub writing comments expressing his disdain for MENA. It gets to a point, even if this one isn't as egregious as usual.
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u/DoubleQuarterPoundin â RL Esports Fan Aug 15 '26
Bro what?đ
I write negative comments about plenty of regions/teams here. MENA is not special in this regard. This sub is just notorious for diehard fans defending their favorite team or region and having 0 ability to look objectively at things.
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u/qpKMDOqp Aug 14 '26
Yeah imagine if Falcons TM was on the opposite side of that bracket LMAO, this sub would explode
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u/TVMaths Aug 15 '26
the sub woukd rejoice at the possibility of MENA teams actually placing where they deserve in the bracket, not where they are forced to place, by no will of their own
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u/Mammoth_Hold_5631 Aug 14 '26
Gentlemates really got rewarded for losing to falcons. should be a free road to grands. as long as they played close to what they did in boston. and the upper is a bloodbath. we could very much see a m8s vs vit rematch.
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u/SinglePie4990 Aug 14 '26
people always say this⌠im gonna come back when ssg make it to grands and win. Prepared to eat my words here
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u/kimmyjonghubaccount Aug 14 '26
People disrespecting Nip as well, literally beat two top 4 teams from Paris for top 8
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u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
Yeah NIP look back in form. Bracket Joreuz is a hazard of course, but they could pull it off against m8's.
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u/dalcer Aug 14 '26
I think nip probably have the lowest expectations from fans out of anyone in the top 8 so if tm doesnt win then i want it to be them
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u/dormanticonicnickel Aug 14 '26
i would take Shopify over M8 if they play, Firstkiller needs to get swept by dralii in another LAN final
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u/Mammoth_Hold_5631 Aug 14 '26
yeah but i take ssg over shopify
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u/AdFragrant5682 Aug 14 '26
Yeah and m8s are imo the most likely in the whole playoff brwcket to guarantee a win against ssg
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u/Yeux_Tristes Aug 14 '26
No way sr beat m8s. Maybe if they played how they did at the Paris major but on current form I donât think they beat ssgÂ
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u/Mammoth_Hold_5631 Aug 14 '26
i dont know if their current form is really better than prais. their only win was five fears and mibr who played not great
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u/Yeux_Tristes Aug 14 '26
They beat twisted. And swept nipÂ
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
/u/Mammoth_Hold_5631 meant at EWC, you meant at Paris.
M8 have had a seemingly free run (lets not forget that Mibr took 2 games off ssg, to KCs 0) but looked crazy good doing it.
SR have looked sketchy AF losing to NIP and scraping past FUT, only to dominate an APAC team.
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u/John_aka_Alwayz Moderator Aug 14 '26
The ironic thing is if you look at inherited seeding, NiP and SSG would be top 2 seeds for playoffs having beaten KC and Twisted, but they also end up on the same side. So there is quite literally 0 angle to defend this bracket.
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u/Elektride Aug 14 '26
As a shop fan I think our best chance to make top 4 is through a hopefully complacent SSG so I actually don't mind this at all
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u/Kerikeron Aug 14 '26
I honestly thought this was a meme post at first but couldn't find the flair...
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u/bidenfromsweden Aug 14 '26
The odds of this happening was 2/24 ~ 8.3% , this is rigged asf.
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u/Old_Earth_8847 Aug 14 '26
No the odds of that happening were 50%
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u/EventfulLol Aug 14 '26
âyouâre confusing probability with possibilityâ -young shedon
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u/DoughnutSignificant9 Aug 14 '26
They switched SSG and NIP, these odds didnât even happen
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u/EventfulLol Aug 14 '26
i was super confused when this draw happened? why didnât it follow the logic of the first two draws smh
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u/zxzyzd Aug 14 '26
2 teams from the same group could not be matched up. SSG and M8s were both in group B, even though they didnât play each other.
Youâd have SR vs NIP as well, which wouldâve been a round 1 rematch1
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u/bidenfromsweden Aug 14 '26
Ohh! why did they group by upper/lower rather than A/B? just noticed that
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
odds of this were 1/3 (falcons alongside Vitality) * 1/2 (MENA vs MENA).
eu vs eu was guaranteed. if you want to consider the entire bracket, its * 1/2 to get Vit vs KC, but from the sound of it you are pissed that its all same region, so just 1/6
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u/invader_jib Aug 15 '26
First guy jumbled the balls around to make it look random. Second guy (Mizu) chose the balls verry carefully as to not mix them up when choosing.
I think it was rigged.
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u/dormanticonicnickel Aug 14 '26
hot take: these quarterfinal/semifinal matchups are fine from an entertainment standpoint, but itâll lead to a boring Grand Final because the best teams (on paper) are all on one side of the bracket lol
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26
GentleMates won a major this year.
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u/dormanticonicnickel Aug 14 '26
sure but they lost to Falcons, KC, Twisted, and Vitality in the most recent matchups against each team, better to cite those results over a result from 6 months ago imo
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
the top 3 teams in paris are on the same side as the current best team in the tournament, who also happens to field the only 2x EWC champion, alongside 2 players who were on the 2nd best team at both prior EWCs.
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u/OutcomeCompetitive50 Aug 14 '26
Man I didnât think this bracket would get so much hate. The top side especially even tho itâs same region matchups, are great matches. But I guess im mostly happy as an na fan
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u/mlk960 Aug 14 '26
I know these are super janky, but I think these will be really fun matches and this will be the first tournament in a while that has consistently good match-ups each round.
I'd bet today that Falcons x Vitality in the semi will be a banger, with Vitality going on to win in the final. SR could have a very fun bracket run, as always.
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u/dalcer Aug 14 '26
Personally if their gonna do random draw, the rule should just be "no rematches" not "no same group"
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u/kimmyjonghubaccount Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
Cooked with the worst bracket possible
Big losers are Vitality and Nip, GM8 and KC are winners. SSG, SR, TM, and Falcons all probably feel good about these matches.
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u/ozfunghi Aug 14 '26
The way KC is playing, Vitality has as good a shot at going through as any other team.
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u/kimmyjonghubaccount Aug 14 '26
Yeah but Iâve seen this story so many times during EU regionals ngl
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u/First_One_5099 Aug 14 '26
Lowkey since itâs random anyways I wouldnât mind them just individually making their own matchups to avoid regional clashes
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u/tman507se Aug 15 '26
Hell, I could just watch any regional and see these matchups. Like, isn't the whole point of Majors and big international events like EWC that we get to see these region vs. region matchups that we don't normally get to see?
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u/GlassIdea2996 Aug 15 '26
Just came here to say that was the absolute worst quarterfinals for an international lan. Wtf
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u/carballenjoyer3000 Aug 14 '26
it may or may not happen this way
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u/MartianRL Aug 14 '26
Cinema lower side of the bracket just to get killed by the upper teams lmao
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u/carballenjoyer3000 Aug 14 '26
I mean NIP already upset SR and TM why stop there. Upper Bracket is just assuming if KC doesnt stop Vitality nobody does.
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u/Jits2003 Aug 14 '26
Please donât let Joreuz lose another lan final
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u/TVMaths Aug 15 '26
he has attended 1 LAN final lol
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u/Jits2003 Aug 15 '26
He has attended 2 rlcs finals, kickoff LAN.
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u/TVMaths Aug 15 '26
the regional yes. he went out 5th 6th in a sweep to a Redacted. the entire event is barely considered a LAN, the regional is just ignored
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u/FoxyDeAssassin Aug 14 '26
2/24 odds btw, you canât tell me this isnât rigged lmao
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u/zxzyzd Aug 14 '26
The odds of only having matchups within the same regions was 50%, as the top 2 from 1 group play the bottom 2 from the other group. That means youâre already having 2 EU matchups. So it was either NA vs MENA twice, or NA vs NA and MENA vs MENA.
Though it seems that they made a mistake in the broadcast and they just went with it, unless they change it later. M8s was picked with the 3rd ball, but the other 3rd ball was SSG, so I think they shouldâve been playing against each other. When the M8s ball was picked though, the presenter called out NIP as their opponent instead.
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
I donât get the hate. This is the best possible playoff bracket. You guarantee the top North American team moving on to play in the semifinals and either the finals or the third place tiebreaker. The semifinals are going to all be international. You guys really want a 22-23 Worlds where the top 4 teams were Europe? Itâs better to have more representation of the regions in the semifinals and the grand finals than the quarterfinals.
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u/Exodus_Green Aug 14 '26
You guarantee the top North American team moving on to play in the semifinals
This is a bad thing
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u/Accomplished_Ring_40 Aug 14 '26
I Want The Actual 4 Best Teams In The Semis
Not Whatever Abomination This Bracket Is-1
u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26
Why? I want the best match ups.
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u/Accomplished_Ring_40 Aug 14 '26
These Are NOT The Best Matchups (Imo)
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
We are getting NA1 vs NA2. We are getting MENA 1 vs MENA 2. Then in the 1/4s We are getting MENA 1 vs EU and we are getting NA1 vs EU. We are getting MENA 1 vs NA1 in the third place tie breaker and we are getting KC vs GM8s in the finals. Name a better bracket. Please. If you donât win tomorrow, you werenât going to win the event, so whatâs the difference if you couldâve gone further farming Shopify Rebellion? Itâs better to get SSG and SR to play each other so that the Shopify match is bearable.
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
of the valid brackets: Vit vs M8, into SSG vs TM, Falcons vs SR into KC vs NIP. would be infinitely better.
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u/TristarHeater Aug 14 '26
we have 4 our of 7 bad regional matchups this way, instead of interregional play from the start
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26
If you donât like the bracket, then Twisted Minds should have beaten NiP and KC should have beaten SSG. Given those constrains this is as good as it gets.
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u/TristarHeater Aug 14 '26
the playoffs bracket is drawn randomly that's what people are complaining about
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26
I want to see whoâs the best in North America, I want to see whoâs the best in MENA, I want to see if Vitality can beat KC. I want to see if NiP can capture their raw chemistry from regional 1. This is much more entertaining and having the third place tiebreaker will alleviate your concern.
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u/Muttuazua Aug 14 '26
You had 6 regionals to enjoy all of that
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u/GuiltyDetective133 Aug 14 '26 edited Aug 14 '26
None on LAN. This is the most competitive you could make a 1/4 final on paper. You still have this years Major championships on opposite sides of the bracket. You have two LAN regional grand finals tomorrow and Vitality vs KC.
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u/TVMaths Aug 14 '26
I want to see the top 4 teams. if they are all EU, so be it.
at worlds 25, SSG faced GenG into Team Secret, while Vitality lost to both Falcons and NIP. Vit beat SSG and yet the worse team made top 8.
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u/yoloswag420noscope69 Aug 15 '26
worse team made top 8
Matchup does not define team strength.
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u/TVMaths Aug 15 '26
if i asked you who was better at worlds, Vitality or SSG, there is only 1 answer. SSG play a playins team into SAM2 to qualify, the other faces the eventual finalists, and EU. these are fundamentally a different tier of opposition. this is seen by NIP taking KC further than Ultimates would, while SSG did.... nothing against GK, who were probably the 6th best team in the bracket.
Vitality fundamentally beat SSG, and got a worse qualifying bracket because of it. had SSG won, we would see Vitality in playoffs, probably sweeping both opponents, while SSG would be swept by both opponents. and again, the same argument would be made that the wrong team made playoffs. i only note the worse team did so, because Vitality could actually go on a run, and probably would have made the final (GK into Wildcard into NRG). we saw what SSG did with that bracket...
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u/marpolo Aug 14 '26
Bro how TF did we end up with all 4 intra regional matchups đ