I don't think this bracket has been as rigged as people say
I love Salina and I do think she could've been in the top for the last two challenges, but I do feel it wasn't necessarily as rigged as people are saying. I do find the internet VERY divided in between arguing which queen Salina should've been in the top over, with some people claiming Crystal Methyd is getting the Ginger Minj treatment, others saying "omg they are rigging it for Silky!". I do feel for Salina cause she could've gotten the spotlight of being in the top 2, but I just feel like the top 3 performers on both episodes had all a solid case for the top and maybe Ru just didnt vibe with Salina as much.
Also some people are blaming the format which I highly disagree, I think Salina being on a regular All Stars format would probably push her even further back into the edit and, having to face even more queens, she probably would not get the "robbed" title and her name would probably get less traction even if she spent more episodes competing. I like how the brackets are able to showcase a lot of the queens during their three episodes run, cause having less queens on the workroom gives the editors more room to show each and every one of them. This has been my favorite format in a while and I've been enjoying the season a lot. It is the right amount of game play and strategy.
One last point is that I hate the argument of "if we go back to the older formats" the seasons would feel less rigged cause riggory and all stars have been a talking point since literally All Stars 1. And rigging at the end of the day only matter to the fandom when its against someone they dislike. People mostly agreed Bosco should not have been in the top for the Makeover on AS10, but it never made as much noise cause people like Bosco and wanted her to merge and they didnt seem to care much about Olivia who got "robbed".
I think the point I'm trying to make is that, even tho Salina could've been in the top for the last two episodes, I don't think she was necessarily robbed and I still think that even if she doesn't merge this showing in this format was probably still better then any showing she might've gotten on a full season with 12 queens with regular AS format. The brackets really allow for the queens inside them to shine, and even tho we would like to get some of them to be in even more episodes, I still think this is still the best format the show has came up for both fans and queens. Let's hope this season doesn't go downhill the same way as AS10 did, but so far I think it has been pretty enjoyable and the rigging haven't bothered me as much as on other drag race seasons.