News Realms Remove Ads - Go Premium! Sign In or Register

Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Can Someone (Official) Explain EU HGC Playoff Order?

The official order is Tricked, Liquid, Zealots. I studied the rules, had a couple of discussions about the rules already (last was here with /u/lerhond) and I still don't understand how this order happened. This is about BlizzCon qualification and IMHO the rules are unclear. Help me out. Please!

These are the stats/facts in the order they are considered in the tie-breaker (checked it a couple of times, but it still could contain an error).

Match Record

  • All 3 teams have 6 wins

Head-to-Head rating

  • Tricked 2-0 Liquid
  • Tricked 1-1 Zealots
  • Zealots 2-0 Liquid

Game Record

  • Tricked -4
  • Liquid -4
  • Zealots -9

Number of 3-0 Game wins in Regular Matches

  • Liquid 4
  • Tricked 3
  • Zealots 2

As I understood the rules, in a 3-way tie-breaker situation the first step only determines the team that gets the best place (see here by /u/DBSmiley). In a second step the 2-way tie is resolved and only the head-to-head rating of those two teams is considered.

The first head-to-head rating leaves us with Tricked and Zealots tied. Since Tricked has a better game record they are first. Now we compare Liquid and Zealots, but as I understood the comparison starts with their direct comparison. Zealots won both matches against Liquid, so they should be 5th, but they are not. How are the rules looping over the queue?

I also don't understand how the Ducks were already in the Crucible. If they had won 3-0 against Fnatic their game record would have been better than Zealot's. How did /u/Khaldor and the team determine they are out?

Please explain this to me, how are the tie-breaker rules applied?

  • Matt MacNeil
    Posted 7 years ago (Source)

    For the sake of the EU playoffs, 5th and 6th rank don't matter as they play each other with no benefit based on rank.

    You asked many questions that seem tied to each other so forgive me if I take any unnecessary liberties.

    Your deduction seems to be correct. With TRC out of the way ZE would indeed place in front of TL due to Head to Head record. When you say "so they should be 5th, but they are not," I'm guessing that you were referencing the standings page which was updated early this morning to reflect this (caching may have caused this to be delayed).

    As for ZE v PD and determining who goes to the Crucible, ZE set the pace. In order for PD to be able to stay out of the Crucible, before the weekend started PD knew that they would have to meet or beat ZE's performance and if ZE 3-0s then ZE would automatically advance over PD even if PD 3-0 their match because ZE has more 3-0s to their name.

  • Matt MacNeil
    Posted 7 years ago (Source)

    Thanks for the help! I got one follow up question how a specific case would have been resolved.

    if ZE 3-0s then ZE would automatically advance over PD even if PD 3-0 their match because ZE has more 3-0s to their name.

    I understood that in case of a ZE-TGG 3-0 it would have been impossible for the Ducks to get 6th place because they would lose the comparison against Zealots. With the 3-1 result we got there was a way, Ducks "only" had to win 3-0 and they would have the game record advantage.

    Does it work out like this, i.e., is a 4-2 record in head-to-head games enough to advance over teams with a 3-3 record? In that case the detailed match score of the Ducks against Fnatic would not even be relevant. If they won, they would have been in the playoffs and Tricked in the Crucible.

    Or do you need to have a 6-0 record to advance over other teams (or 4-0 in 3-way tie) and otherwise the tie-breaker is continued with game record?

    Short answer, 6-0 needed.

    Long answer, for every extra team in a head to head tiebreaker you need to have 2-0'd them in order to automatically advance over them. X-way tiebreaker you need to have 2X-0 match record among those teams.

Tweet