Regular season is for playoff seeding in every single sport other than soccer. There isn't enough teams to eliminate them from the playoffs. The top two teams should be rewarded with a bye week for their regular season performance and they get to scout the other teams during their matches. 3 seed plays 6 seed, 4 seed plays 5 seed. I don't get what the big deal would be to do this. More twitch viewers for you Aurum because there would be two teams not playing that could watch the matches and it extends the season a little bit. It would benefit everyone (more twitch streams and everyone gets to play NW a bit more).
If you're set on 4 teams then go for it, but at least consider the benefits of doing it this way.
I mean, Hockey the regular season determines who gets into the playoffs and who doesn't. In SMITE (idk about other games) not all the teams go to the playoff stage after the regular season.
Having everyone make the playoffs takes away from the importance of the regular season, if everyone's guaranteed to make it, then who cares? You could put in zero effort every match, still make the playoffs and then switch it on for play offs. Sure, you get better seeding on paper, but it makes no practical difference, like if your team has a tendency to play really well against say Corona, but really shit against Redemption, what's to stop people from just half-assing their matches to end up with seeding so they can play Corona first?
Like there's no point to a regular-season if you do that, at that point, it's literally just a bunch of scrims. Teams should have to play to earn their spots, they shouldn't be guaranteed just for participating.
Which is why the decision is being decided on basically at the end of the regular season.... the argument against saying it takes away from a important regular season is dumb in my opinion. Its the same argument from people wanting a 4 seed playoff, while I am not interpreting it is completely stupid. I think its better to point out how short the season already is. The Regular season does nothing for most teams. If you really wanted to have a impactful regular season it should have been extended. It is better to think abroad, and how we can make a playoff interesting. Either way the importance of the regular season at this point shouldn't be about elimination, but about seeding and making the playoff race easier. Scrimming will only make some players or teams so good, the only way some players get the reps they need is through regular season, and we don't have a lot of that as is. Why should a team, have a few bad performances and already be ruled out?
The length of the regular season shouldn't make a difference. Like we all knew we had 5 matches to perform our best in and show that we deserve our spot in the playoffs. If a team is having enough bad performances to be eliminated, why should they be given a spot?
No one is perfect, teams need time to adjust. Like I said to say teams who struggle are automatically unworthy of even PARTICIPATING in a chance to win, is judging someone who hasn't walked, on their inability to walk properly. None of these teams have had a proper amount of time to practice, which gives everyone reason to have them all play in a playoff to show off how they have improved. Like I said this is why this "playoff" decision should be determined after, so teams try hard through. We all have 1 match left, so for most teams it is already a "scrim" since some are predetermined to their disposition. Some already know what it takes to either win, or even if they have to try anymore. The season is so short, to argue that perfect performance for 4 weeks of actually playing, some players just coming back in the period, is absolutely insane.
No, it isn't. We're all comp players and have been for awhile. No one is learning to walk for the first time, and there've been scrims going on since a week before even the first match week, and most teams scrim multiple days a week and multiple times a night lol, that's over a 4 week period at this point, so the excuse of not having enough time to practice feels disingenuous.
At this point, some teams like Blademasters & Corona, yes, their last match doesn't really matter, but they've played to the point that they earned it, they clinched their spot and they get to reap the rewards of their efforts, for the rest of us, you know, we gotta keep playing our best for this last week and prove we also deserve to be in the playoffs with them.
