I think that'd be fine if there was no loser's bracket. Sure you might have a "group of death" and see teams get unfairly eliminated, but no one is getting an artificial second chance while others don't.
You are then faced with win your games or don't complain, instead of like C9 in the last tournament where they claim they basically tanked the first series cause they assumed they'd get a second.
Maybe it's because I'm from europe and as such soccer is the sport for me to watch but the biggest sports event in the world works with group stage. Sponsorships and prize money should be on incomparable levels. That said they operate a little different from the bracket matches.
You just can't see a group stage win on the same level as a bracket win, see it as a 2nd round of qualifiers. That's like saying C9 winning over tempo is unfair because tempo won over them in the previous road to blizzcon qualifier, it's not straight succession.
I watch plenty of soccer. The World Cup does work with a group stage. You are also dealing with far more teams which makes that style of bracket work a whole hell of a lot better. You're pretty damn unlikely to turn around and face a team you already beat or who already beat you if you both advance. It happens, but odds are if a team already beat a team, it will do so again. No one is taking dives in the group stage in the World Cup like C9 claimed to in this tournament. This is on top of the fact that in a tournament with 8 teams it's virtually a guaranteed to happen for someone like it did for C9 and Tempo Storm.
HOTS and most esports work on series, not single game matchups. If Tempo Storm wins the first series against Cloud 9 (and mind you they bodied them in the particular scenario that brought this up), yet Cloud 9 eeks out the second series, what sense does it make that Cloud 9's series win counts as more than Tempo Storms?
It doesn't, other than the fact that the tournament rules say it does. The same tournament rules that are different than the rules used for loser's bracket in the qualifiers.
In the grand scheme of things, Tempo Storm still won the majority of the games against Cloud 9, but unlike Cloud 9 they were not afforded an opportunity to get a second life. That makes absolutely zero sense and is pretty shitty and even the C9 people agreed on that. It is even more glaring when you consider every Road To Blizzcon qualifier worked that way...yet when we get to the big dance it's different?
I am super glad Cloud 9 won, don't get me wrong. But the only legitimate victory they have over Tempo Storm in the past few months (I don't count the KotS tourney) was ESL Majors when they returned from the loser's bracket and won two sets to take that title, instead of just skating through due to time constraints like they did in the Americas Championship.
As a fan of C9, I'd prefer the legitimacy. As a person who likes watching HOTS, I'd prefer the full competition and more games.
