OU:
Bloody alfa vs Jytcampbell - This prediction may seem counter intuitive, as Bloody alfa lost his week 1 game while Jyt beat Malekith. However, neither result has affected my confidence in either player too much to deviate from my views on them before the tournament started. Bloody alfa and the Bushmasters, imo, took their anti-offense prep for lax way too far. With Scarf Charizard and Sub DD Dragapult Sun you're probably going too far down the
alpha rabbit hole. While we're on the topic of alphas, I rate Bloody alfa (close enough..) very highly and his consistent success in this generation has been very impressive. I've seen him up close as my WCoP team mate and can't go against him here. Jyt, as mentioned, is coming off a win, but as much as it pains me to write this, that more so felt like Malekith was coming off a loss. The Excadrill vs. Kommo-o sequence felt very off to me and ultimately resulted in post Knock Off Specs Magnezone becoming unstoppable. Jyt had some awkward early game plays, which culminated in both Urshifu and Magnezone losing their respective boosting Choice-items. All in all I'm not won over yet, but if Jyt manages to beat Bloody alfa as well it'll be hard to snub him again.
OU:
Santu vs Eo Ut Mortus - It'll only become more and more challenging to not just write "Italian player." as my sole reasoning for Italian featured games as this post progresses, but let's at the very least use it as a first argument for now. In fact, the only loss from an Italian player came against another Italian player... Look, they're just better than us. I don't know how else to spin it. Santu is on a ridiculous hot streak and simply can't seem to lose right now; even more so than most of the other Italians, who are also winning a lot. Eo also won his week 1 game and did so against a fellow round 1 pick, which obviously holds value. That said, the game was a bit of a messy one and Eo had more than one break going his way. I think Eo is going to have a good tournament, but I wasn't impressed enough last week to go rogue and predict against the Italians.
OU:
frisoeva vs Ewin - Oof. I predicted Ewin to win last week and he got straight up picked apart. Sorry about that, Tama. Friso is a very interesting character to me. I really should be able to go into depth here, as I've teamed with friso in two official tournaments already, but a lot of what goes on in friso's mind is still a mystery to me. During our WCoP semi finals series against Germany he decided to go out drinking with the lads during his scheduled time, only to realize that he'd have to play on phone while living it up with his bros. He also feels the need to use crazy shit sometimes, besides his obsession with
. On the other hand, I truly believe he's a great player. Apologies for the following string of words, but man he has a massive pair of testicles. He really does. That man isn't afraid of any play. Assuming he'll use a good team with, say, a Ground-type resistance, then I think he'll win. Ewin, simply put, got smashed. The Aegislash moveset was admittedly a rough match-up, but even then. My faith will have to be won again should Ewin want to be bolded once more in the future.
OU:
Lopunny Kicks vs Garay oak - Haha go Spikes brrrrrrrrrrrr. Look, Punny likes what he likes and who are we to say anything about it. Clearly, it's working very well. As predictable as people may believe he is, he still puts up results in literally every tournament. As I'm writing this he's coming off a positive WCoP in which he was a very active builder, Slam playoffs, OLT playoffs and off to a winning start here in Snake, too. Also, Italian, obviously. Garay started off his campaign with a loss, but he faced one of the best players in the tournament, according to everyone but himself, in watashi. Garay has had a stellar year in lower tiers, specifically in the subforum premier leagues like NUPL and UPL. I also know Garay is very determined to have a good run in OU, yet he keeps running into opponents that are more experienced and more comfortable than him in OU. I hate predicting against my friend, but I'd be surprised if he won this one.
DOU: qsns vs
umbreon098 - These two players are both coming off a week 1 win, but only one of them is Italian... qsns actually beat the unanimously #1 ranked player, Ezrael, with ease following an excellent team choice, so there is that. A team Ezrael helped build, btw. BKC has a word or two to say about using someone's own teams against them... In any case, qsns's match-up was incredible and Ezrael couldn't do a damn thing once he predicted the lead wrong. As for Umbry, she had a solid debut game herself. Her Corviknight had a spectacular match-up and she played a solid game all around, too. qsns' match-up was so free that I have yet to see whether or not they'll actually play a good game, while Umbry also had a more visibly good showing in the DOU circuit this year. I really don't feel safe about this prediction, as I believe both players to be among the top half of the pool, but I'm going with Umbry for now.
UU: Ramolost vs
Poek - Poek is back and he won in typical experienced vs. inexperienced fashion. viv started their game off really well, but as the game progressed slipped up once or twice to let Poek back into the game. You can't do that against someone as good as Poek. I feel a similar situation brewing in this match-up. Ramolost, to his credit, is coming off a week 1 win against CBU, though he did so using a very flowchart-y offense in combination with CBU messing up his calcs. Ramolost could have a very good season, but I haven't seen enough to predict against Poek yet. Keep an eye on Ramolost, though, because he really didn't do much wrong in his debut game, which is always encouraging.
RU: roman vs
Pepeduce - Both of these players have started off their seasons with a bang, but only one of them can be 2-0 after they play. roman, in classic roman fashion, played like a crack possessed demon as he beat the #1 ranked player in Ajna week 1. roman's team building influence then reached so far that both Lopunny Kicks and Meru used his team against each other for the RU Open final. Pepeduce, however, wielded a different kind of power. Pepeduce single handedly eliminated one of the teams in the first week of the tournament. The Serpents' season is over, as Pepeduce and his signature Ninjask managed to grind out a tough game against Nat. As of right now, Pepeduce is the most powerful player in Snake and I can't predict against him.
NU: CyberOdin vs
Realistic Waters - CyberOdin actually played a solid first game of the season against bugzinator, but bugzinator had a good match-up and used his experience to ride said advantage home nicely. RW is also coming off a win and as mentioned last week I think quite highly of him. The main thing that concerns me here is RW's familiarity and creativity against the ADV main in CyberOdin. Fundamentally, Odin is probably the better overall player, but RW is going to bring a Pokemon or a set that's just not going to register with Odin. NU has completely transformed due to tier shifts and I trust RW to solve it (a lot) quicker than Odin.
PU:
soulgazer vs TJ - soulgazer, to the surprise of many (many people, not PU player many's prediction specifically), is coming off a loss against Roseybear. Roseybear has had an excellent Grand Slam and PU Open showing, though we obviously have to 'throw pure Open results out the window because Open this year was just completely dominated by luck. Oh well, what can you do.' In any case, soulgazer is not just a veteran in this field, he is THE veteran in this field. TJ is getting his first chance to start in an official team tournament and lost to, and this is true, obii in his first game. The gap in tournament experience and playing level, as far as I can judge that so far, is too big to go against soulgazer. soulgazer does need to be wary of not getting caught in the team builder again, as Lapras caused way more problems than it should have last week, for example. A lesson learned for the notoriously nitpicky soulgazer, I'm sure.
LC: Kingler vs
dcae - Kingler is a fascinating player in every way imaginable. Kingler, somehow, is the first player ever to win the same Grand Slam Open twice. I'm not kidding, you can go and check this. Kingler also started off last week with a loss while playing an arguably suboptimal endgame. Tragically, this is consistent with [Team Tournament] Kingler's showings the last year or two. One might even suggest that his 0-1 start is simply the first building block towards a trademark 2-7 finish. I personally really like Kingler, so I hope he wins more than two games this season, but whether he does is anything but certain. dcae is coming off a solid first game against Mazinger and quietly rode out an advantage pretty comfortably. Given that this is a team tournament game and not an individual tournament game, while also looking at how both players played in week 1, I'm going to have to go with dcae here.