I’m sorry but the ultimate instant restaurant rankings should have meant more than just determining who could cook when in the next challenge. I would have structured the finals something like this:
- Last Night: Qualifying Final - 1st ranked UIR team v 2nd ranked UIR team (winner gets the ability to later decide who they’ll face in the prelim finals)
^ Top ranked UIR team to get some type of advantage in this final - Sunday: Semi Final 1 - 3rd ranked UIR team v 6th ranked UIR team (loser is eliminated, winner progresses to Prelim Finals)
- Monday: Semi Final 2 - 4th ranked UIR team v 5th ranked UIR team (loser is eliminated, winner progresses to Prelim Finals)
^ At the end of the episode, QF winner determines the Prelim Final matchups - Tuesday: Prelim Final 1 - QF Winner v SF1/SF2 Winner (loser is eliminated)
- Wednesday: Prelim Final 2 - QF Loser v Other SF1/SF2 Winner (loser is eliminated)
- Sunday 6th May: Grand Final - PF1 Winner v PF2 Winner
With that system, you actually have a proper finals format which rewards the top 2 UIR teams (by having the ‘double chance’ and the incentive for the QF winner) whilst making the UIR round extremely important in terms of where teams are positioned
Applying my finals structure to this year’s UIR rankings, the finals would have ended up looking like this:
- QF: Alex & Emily (#1 UIR) v Olga & Valeria (#2 UIR)
- SF1: Henry & Anna (#3 UIR) v Stella & Jazzey (#6 UIR)
- SF2: Kim & Suong (#4 UIR) v Josh & Nic (#5 UIR)
- PF1: Alex & Emily (QF Winner*) v SF1/SF2 Winner (whichever they pick)
^ * Picked them because they faced off against Josh & Nic for the SF spot last night - PF2: Olga & Valeria (QF Loser) v Other SF1/SF2 Winner (whichever team Alex & Emily didn’t pick)
- GF: PF1 Winner v PF2 Winner