Saw some posts about this around. Just wanted to maybe help explain to those who don't understand how this is not hurting anything. In fact it is good for the game.
Ladder rankings are more accurate the more games that are played, so this is helping those playoff teams get a more accurate ranking.
If they win one or two playoff games, yes, they have 1 or 2 extra games where they can move up the ladder than a non-playoff team. But, when next season starts the playoff team will have more elo. This means they will take less elo than they would have had those playoff games they won not affected their elo. On the flip side, if they get beat, they'll lose more elo.
So it balances out, it's not unfair or hurting any leagues.
The only way I can see this going bad is if a team switches leagues every season and wins the championship every season. Then they'd be wearing down one league one season, gaining elo for themselves while draining other teams. Then they hop to a different league and dominate there, draining elo and jumping again. If a team stays in the same league and dominates it year in and year out then it is more likely that the gap in elo will get larger slowly, meaning the dominating team will take less and less elo the larger the gaps get. But if they somehow get to a fresh middling league each season then it's just more elo for them to grab. Very unlikely though and not something anybody needs to worry about.
Ladder rankings are more accurate the more games that are played, so this is helping those playoff teams get a more accurate ranking.
If they win one or two playoff games, yes, they have 1 or 2 extra games where they can move up the ladder than a non-playoff team. But, when next season starts the playoff team will have more elo. This means they will take less elo than they would have had those playoff games they won not affected their elo. On the flip side, if they get beat, they'll lose more elo.
So it balances out, it's not unfair or hurting any leagues.
The only way I can see this going bad is if a team switches leagues every season and wins the championship every season. Then they'd be wearing down one league one season, gaining elo for themselves while draining other teams. Then they hop to a different league and dominate there, draining elo and jumping again. If a team stays in the same league and dominates it year in and year out then it is more likely that the gap in elo will get larger slowly, meaning the dominating team will take less and less elo the larger the gaps get. But if they somehow get to a fresh middling league each season then it's just more elo for them to grab. Very unlikely though and not something anybody needs to worry about.
