I will argue differently from the others, not on the theoretical side, but on the practical side, I want to point out what consequences it had for the other teams that are already eliminated.
The GR1 team had three players who were just below level 153 for the last few days, at 99% of level 152. These three players literally froze in the rankings for a week. However, they came into their third and final battle (June 14) at level 152, because according to the publicly and officially declared rules, they only knew that they could only go into the battle at level 153 on Sunday (June 16) or they could come in on Friday (June 14, their last battle), but then they would either have to skip the next Sunday battle or they could participate but their level would be reduced by 100% XP to 0% XP level 152, so they ruled out that option outright.
The same can be said about our former opponents, the DE2 team, they also had three players who could have been level 153 in their last battle on Friday (June 14) - however they came with level 152 - and I'm sure that if they knew that, that is, if the rules were declared clearly, they would certainly use such an opportunity or better said privilege. The same with us, RO teams and last but not least, PL2. Because they could use it as well.
The rules need to be clearly declared, that is self-explanatory. Or what is it about? Should I search for scattered information about the rules in places I wouldn't normally look for it to figure out how I can use the game to my advantage?
Only this was publicly declared within the rules (declared on April 18, 2024).
[All] One time level reduction = During the event you can request your level to be reduced with 1 level, only once! We will remove XP in order to be at the 0% of the lower level. (e.g. at level 151, we change your level 150 with XP: 22628789).
In addition, this publicly declared rule contradicts what is written in the support tool (an undeclared rule until this day):
If you do not want to be lowered at 0%, please let us know the exact XP amount you need. This value can be between the lowest value needed for that level, and the biggest value which still keeps you on that level (in case of level 151: between 24614129 and 26721541).
Quite simply, the rules contradict each other. Basically what happened was a precedent.
I'll tell you why I see this as a problem and why I'm actually discussing it. At the beginning of the tournament, quite a few players were banned for violating the rules that were publicly declared on the forum, the reason being that they were violating the rules that were declared on the forum - either they didn't read them or they didn't understand them. This gave the impression that what is written and declared on the forum is something like constitution, the alpha and omega of commandments and prohibitions. I'll bet that, except for the PL1 team, all the other teams are surprised by this finding, because it doesn't make sense to anyone.