Originally Posted by danielf

Personally, I blame the format. What do you expect if teams can get an easier draw if they lose a match? It's not that different to a football team resting players for a game when they've already qualified. Or a relay team that fields lesser athletes for the heats. I think the organisers should come up with a format that doesn't incentivise a loss. This is four pairs out of the last eight, i.e. half the qualifying pairs. That should tell you something's wrong with the format.