Related to GNW ranking/points/placing so if someone could help me that'd be great.

Only 3 groups participate in GNW on our server, one group regularly wins it as they have most of the strongest users in the server. We routinely place 2nd, with the final group coming in third. On the wednesday, we faced the 3rd place group first and won, and miraculously won against the 1st place group due to some fortune with the lands.

So yesterday instead of again, facing the 3rd place group first to proceed to the finals, we had to face the strong group first. Which we unsurprisingly lost. So the usually finishing 3rd place group auotmatically came 2nd just by being in the finals. Seems like we were punished for winning both our matches on a wednesday, so would intentionally losing them instead lead to a higher placed finish?? Or is this mainly just an issue due to the fact that only 3 groups participate in GNW?