[2021] Clash requirements and lack of clarity regarding placements

Countless posts have been made on this subject and yet I can't understand if I must complete placements to be able to play in this week's Clash (and all future Clash tournaments).
I searched the subreddit and found 2 articles as well as a reply by a Rioter to a similar post and found this:

https://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/news/game-updates/feb-3-4-make-up-clash-tournament/

This was for the February 3/4 make up Clash

https://euw.leagueoflegends.com/en-gb/news/dev/dev-2021-clash-check-in/

This implies that only tournaments held in January will benefit from this but it's still confusing

So I kinda got the idea that placements are mandatory for this and future Clash tournaments, but I was confused still, since you can enter or make a team even if you didn't finish placements, so I decided to search in this subreddit and found this post, in which Rioter /u/CodeofBear replies that "You should be able to play in Clash this year if you were ranked in the previous season" and that the post is "worded wrong".

Writing this probably took more time than playing placements, but at this point it's a matter of principle. I hope we can get some clarity on this whole thing, or at least some indication that one is not eligible to play Clash because they didn't finish their placements.