Oh I'm glad you answered this in the middle of the mess,Loctav wrote:
Please consider that the Group Stage is considered as mere Qualification stage, seeding all players according to their initial performance into the actual tournament, starting from Round of 16. Only 16 of 32 countries can in fact qualify. Therefore, the Group Stage pool is designed to measure said seeding and to offer a proper qualification stage, hence why it is way easier than what comes from RO16 and further.
are there going to be plans to change next years OWC then? I'm sure a lot of the OWC players would rather play a bit more difficult maps, especially considering the skill level of the more experienced player base increases every year. The level of the maps in the finals pool last year have increased astoundingly, maps that were in the finals a few years ago would be considered entry level in these times.
I guess this argument is more about me being a bit salty that as a player on a non-seeded team that is most likely going to be knocked out in group stages, it feels like we (teams not expected to win) are being treated as if we're not good enough to play harder maps.
