[Rachel Lim]

Last year, the top few teams were mixed together based on luck, the middle teams were mixed together based on luck, and the bottom ones were mixed together based on luck.

This year, the top teams are separated fairly well, the middle teams are mixed together based on luck, and the bottom ones are mixed together based on luck.

The alliances you play with in qualification rounds will always have an effect on your ranking. We definitely benefited from this at SVR this year. However, in general, I feel like QA has done a better job of separating out the top few teams, and the absolute top team in specific, than WLT has done last year. It's sort of like OPR: it does a good job for the top few teams, but isn't that helpful for everyone else. And everyone knows who those top few teams are, so it's not particularly useful in that aspect either.

Ranking alone is rarely an accurate measure of a team's ability. Good scouting data is always necessary.