@Foster, I am not saying that BO1 contributed to Worlds spots being scarcer. In fact, I agree with many of your points and I really like some of the recent changes like the addition of the Signature Events.
What I am saying, is that with BO1 students are scared that all their hard work over the entire season could be negated by one unfortunate event, regardless if it is in or out of their control. Whether the probability of such even is statistically significant or not - the fear and associated anxiety is very much real and significant.
This creates a large gap between perceived upside and downside potential. And when there is an increased difference in potentials, it allows a lot of energy to flow into the system. Some of that energy could be used in constructive ways, and some could end up damaging the system.
After reading recent threads one could consider @Foster and @Anomaly to be at the completely opposite sides of the discussion. But for some weird reason, I couldn’t get an image off my mind of Anomaly growing into Foster 2.0 with both being very passionate about what they are doing and willing to easily take up on a mission to help others.
I find it very unfortunate that we are in the situation where changes made by RECF ended up driving a wedge between people, instead of facilitating constructive cooperation.
I don’t read Discord regularly. I peek into it every once in a while and find there usual teen talk trying to show off themselves being brave and confident. However, behind that talk I see a lot of wariness and anxiety, and BO1 contributes a lot to that. Some of the members may trash talk Foster or other EPs for defending BO1, but I bet they secretly admire him for taking on RECF in his sometimes opinionated posts.