Sometimes you can find examples of metagaming even in the design of metagames itself. For the largest part of the soccer world cup, the metagame is straightfor

Sometimes you can find examples of metagaming even in the design of metagames itself. For the largest part of the soccer world cup, the metagame is straightforward - win matches, don't lose - and casual viewers can easily follow by just concentrating on the match at hand and having some superficial knowledge of the rules. Except for the final matchday of the group stage: That's when everyone suddenly becomes a master strategist and soccer expert and there are complex discussions everywhere about groups, tables, ranking criteria, tie breakers, victory pathways and hypotheticals as people are trying to keep track of the different ways how their team can make it out of the group stage. Then the knockout stage begins and the game is suddenly very simple again.