The tiebreaker. Is it fair?

Skimpychaff·10/9/2016, 1:42:08 AM·10 votes·3,400 views

We all had hype for the west this season and H2K and C9 are our last hope. However many question rised when TSM and RNG have the same stats (3-3) but since RNG have 2-0 in wins over TSM the Tiebreaker is no longer needed. The question is now. Is this a valid reason to ignore a tiebreaker? As many casters says: " LoL is a teamgame and can be over after just a late teamfight" Knowing that two equal team matches can be decided by just a teamfight. Is it really valid to rule out a team after two loses against a team with same score stats?

And as many might say: "Well if they dominated a team two times its not even valid to play a third". Well then they can just "own" them a third time?

What do you think? Is the score system even valid with this happening in the end?

Enter you answers here

74 Comments

Not Fade Away10/9/2016, 2:13:44 AM8 votes

It doesn't really make sense to me to look at head-to-head within a round robin group stage, because the manner in which you are successful is by being the most consistent across a set of teams, which as per this example is a tie. To take this to the extreme, you can potentially have the best 3 teams [in the world] within the same group, such that the third best team does not make it out of groups and effectively ends up placing 9th or lower since they missed the top 8 - they may be the third best team in the world, but just happened to have the best two teams [in the world] in their group. Another extreme would be that if you want to argue that head-to-head matters, then why does RNG move on but Splyce doesn't since their head-to-head is 1-1. My point being, again it's not about head-to-head, but rather consistent performance across a variety of contenders.

That being said, the teams know the format going in and their result is totally in their hands - win everything and you can't not make quarter finals.

I do think they could make this better by having it be a double round-robin against all teams, but that would obviously mean a lot of games.

Gaxx D10/9/2016, 1:57:05 AM6 votes

I wonder if you'd want a tiebreaker if the situation turned? Yeah, I thought not. All I see in this thread are a group of hypocrites who can't take a loss with some class. Every sport in this planet uses the same format - if you win twice against the same team and are tied with them based on points, you still advance. You want to change the rules to try and benefit an NA team, which probably still wouldn't work.

Darkin Donuts10/9/2016, 1:49:09 AM6 votes

There should of been a tie breaker. This is GROUP stage, not "look at the match up of these 2 teams" stage. TSM is the only team to beat the top performers, SSG. On the flipside, RNG is the only team to lose to the worst performers, SPY. So in a GROUP stage, is it fair that TSM can beat the #1 seed and then not get to advance because they TIED with another team, who actually lost once to the worst team? I don't think so, and I'm not even a TSM fan, would just been nice to see NA stay in it.

TSM Kaiju10/9/2016, 1:48:28 AM5 votes

I think there should have been a tie-breaker. It was really confusing to understand why there wasn't a tiebreaker while both teams were 3-3. The way I see it, if two teams are tied in W-L for second place, there should be a tie-breaker regardless if team A lost team B twice prior.

But that is just my opinion.

xJLx MCHammer10/9/2016, 1:42:43 AM4 votes

Yes, it's fair. TSM lost 2 times to RNG. You don't get a third!

Lose with honor!

Runningbomb10/9/2016, 1:47:07 AM4 votes

While I understand the way its done, I would've liked to see a tie breaker. After all, just because you go down 2-0 in say a BO5, doesn't mean the series just ends.

Blakiepug10/9/2016, 2:28:03 AM3 votes

I don't think it's fair. 2 of RNG's 3 wins that got them to group stages were against TSM. For me, I don't have any personal favorites when it came to this group as I don't watch eSports that often but when both teams ended 3-3 they should have to play a tiebreaker in my opinion. You highlight it perfectly in that if the head-to-head match up is in favor of RNG, they should be able to beat TSM a 3rd time if the head-to-head is really that tilted in their favor. I find it kind of unfair that RNG can advance when they really only beat TSM in group stages and struggled hard against everyone else whereas TSM had a stronger (but still not great) presence among multiple teams, not just ONE in particular. To be completely fair, they should have done a tiebreaker to see who came out on top 4-3 but instead Riot laughed at me as they crushed my World Pick'ems for the night (0 out of 16 points in Group D lol).

Guest Host10/9/2016, 2:01:48 AM2 votes

Well, that's how it works in most sports leagues. For instance, in Spain's soccer league Primera Liga, if Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have the same points, the team that's ahead in head-to-head performance is considered the higher in rank.

And btw, if this was the other way around with TSM ahead in head-to-head performance, this wouldn't even be on the boards right now.