good to meet you guru..
thanks and to you

hope ima be able to play you and have a chance to win one day
and thanks for all the good work and help

While it is an immediate loss of cash not playing in the first round, you can look at it as that you will at worst finish in the top 1024 which gets end of season prize money. There's always a bright side.

It may be random, but I've gotten the bye in all 3 seasons.

It is an advantage from the standpoint of it's extra prize money that you didn't have to earn. But the ticket income from the game, unless it's 2 teams with small stadiums playing each other, probably would be more than the 30,000 or so you get in extra prize money.