I'm not sure I saw this explicitly stated as a reason ahead of time for changing to this format, but did it have something to do with the WikiBrackiLeaks of recent years? As in, they wanted to beat the hackers to the punch by revealing all of the teams quicker? If so, it still makes no sense why you "reveal" the auto qualifiers first. Put the at-large names out there first. Again, I don't know if hacking was the reason for the change or they just decided to be idiots -- er, I mean, to try something new? But, wow, was it ever historically bad on so many fronts!
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