ESL EMS qualifier brackets

For lack of knowing who to message, I'll do this in open letter format. The ESL EMS brackets are not keeping to proper double elimination structure. So far the tournament isn't very far in, and no lower bracket games have been played at a stage where this is impossible to fix, so I hope this is early enough to get those fixes in place.

First, an explanation of the double elimination structure:

Say you have 16 games in your first round of winners bracket games (a large, but not huge, double elimination bracket). The loser of each of those pairs of games play each other (LB Round 1), as do the winners (WB Round 2). In the second round of losers bracket games, the order is reversed. The loser of the LAST of the eight listed WB Round 2 games plays the winner of the FIRST of the eight listed LB Round 1 games - this is LB Round 2. These teams play off against each other in LB Round 3, then the order is reversed again so the winner of the FIRST of the four listed LB Round 3 games plays the loser of the FIRST of the four listed WB Round 3 games (WB quarters). This order repeats and, by doing this, ensures that teams have the lowest probability of meeting each other twice until the LB Final.

This is better explained graphically, as seen in this pdf for 16 teams or this pdf for 32 teams.

It is important that this structure is maintained for the integrity of a double elimination bracket, otherwise teams can be unfairly eliminated by being forced to play the same 'in form' or poorly seeded opponent twice.

So far, as I say, the EMS qualifiers are not very far in, so there are only a few deviations from the standard detailed above:

In the EMS CZ Qualifier ultima should be playing against the winner of xGe vs NL, not the winner of nAk vs rc.

In the EMS DE Qualifier there are more inconsistencies:
dTheatre should be playing SkS, and then have a match against KSD.
uR should be playing against dL, with the winner playing u21.
zen should be playing Lsb, with the winner playing eXg.
elemenT and cranK should play each other, with no game vs LSb.
In addition, once these fixes are made, the dTheatre and cranK sections should be in the first (upper) half of the losers bracket, with zen and dL sections in the other (lower) half.

In the EMS PL Qualifier Idem should be playing against rL, not the winner of wrAth vs 34ry.

I've not had a chance to review the EMS EU qualifier as getting it to load on this PC is a pain, but if there are inconsistencies there I'll try to highlight them later.

This is not intended as criticism of the ESL admins - large double elimination brackets are hellishly difficult to get straight in your mind, and I frequently make mistakes with them when planning tournaments. I know just how much work it is to run a large tournament, and I applaud them for it. The simple fact is, however, that if they are not correctly constructed then the entire point of running double elimination, which is to provide a counter to inevitable inconsistencies and uncertainty in the bracket seeding, is bypassed, at least in part. I hope this is in time for the brackets to be correctly formulated.

~Adacore