• Smogon Premier League is here and the team collection is now available. Support your team!

Circuit Rands Circuit V - Playoffs (GRAND FINAL @ #90)

I'll inevitably write a longer post for the final but here are some fun trivia about the semifinals!

Lichess vs Pigey
- Lichess vs Pigey being one of the semifinals means that, for the first time in the history of the Circuit, we'll have an American player in the finals
- All the US regions have been represented in Circuit semifinals at this point. We had Midwest (Expulso, 2021), South (Typhlosion48 in 2022 and flameingpigey2 in 2025), North East (Lady Writer, 2023) and West (Lichess, 2025)
- Lichess and Pigey are both at their first appearance in Circuit Playoffs. Ever since the second edition of the Circuit, one (but never the other one) of the finalists was always someone reaching this stage in their first ever run in Circuit Playoffs. We had Clem (won), livid (loss) and Drifting (loss)

Michielleus vs Losco
- Whoever wins between Losco and Mich will reach Circuit finals for the second time ever, which would be a record
- Since the creation of the Circuit, one of the finalists have always been european (and well, the eventual winner too...)
- It's the first time a semifinal is played between two players who reached at the least the final of an open in that year's Circuit (9 for Losco, 7 and 6 for Mich)
- It's also the semifinal with the highest seeds we have ever seen. It equals Michael (#3) vs Teres (#7) from last year
 
Lichess vs Pigey
Michielleus vs Losco

1769290228044.png
 
Michielleus (6/7/9) vs LoSconosciuto (2/8/5/dubs)

5 is the tossup tier. I think michi is more favored in fairy gens that aren't gen8, and losco is more favored at gsc/dubs. Ultimately i think the skill gap between losco's formats is larger for him than for Michi's picks vs losco, but each of these players ceilings are definitely close enough that this could go either way. definitely a finals worthy match, i think the winner here is my favorite to go the distance.

lichess (6/7/9/dubs) vs flameingpigey2 (4/5/8)

Lichess has looked more solid and i think is the favorite in the majority of these formats. Pie guy has had a good run but i think there have been some shaky moments that will get punished in the bo7.


glhf all! if you could post the scheduled time i would appreciate it <3
 
I believed in Pigey vs Livid when everyone else wasn't!! I'll keep believe in him no matter what, even if Lichess is a really tough opponent. They both proved to be really flexible and that they deserved to reach this point.
I predict Losco to win vs Michi thanks to doubles, otherwise they're pretty even to me
 
 
It's finals time! Here is the final list of - hopefully interesting - trivia about this matchup!

Trivia about Michielleus :volcarona:
- Let's start with the obvious one: if he wins, he would be the only person to win the Circuit twice
- He can continue the ongoing 4 year streak of european players winning the Circuit
- He would also be the highest seed to win, tied with Michael from last year (#3)
- Mich's run this year was crazy: he went to 5 against MasterJ, John Dozo and Vioz, 7 against Losco. Therefore, he is the first person to reach Playoff Finals after going to the last game in EVERY series he played. Now, imagine if he wins this in 7 too...
If you want to know who lost the least amount of games en route to reach finals, that person was benJAMIN with only ONE game lost. Then he lost to Elgino so maybe losing games is actually the key to win...
- If Mich loses, he would have lost three finals in the Circuit in the same year, which would be... not a record you want to hold :x
- In case of loss, he would also be the first person to win AND lose the finals of Rbtt (Suicune 2024), Wcor (2022) and Circuit. There is only another person who lost in finals for all these events and that's livid washed, who happened to be Mich's opponent in the 2023 Circuit

Trivia about Lichess :dewott:
- He can be the first american and, more in general, the first non european to win the Circuit
- If he wins, he'll be the second #20 seed to win the Circuit... after Michielleus himself lol
- He is the first person to reach the final of the first and the last event of the Circuit in the same year
- In case of win, he'll be the first person to actually get a personal custom from winning the Circuit (there was no custom for the first edition, while Clem, Mich and Michael already had their own when they won)
- A very, very hard record to beat: if Lichess wins, he'll be the first person to win the Circuit not just in his first year in rands but on Smogon as a whole. His first ever post on the website was his signup for the Gen 9 Swiss Tournament (!!!)

For the next bunch of trivia, I'll save here a brief overview of the opponents every finalist of the Circuit had to face to reach the last stage of Playoffs. I also added their seeds to show some curious tendencies and to help myself when I inevitably write a similar post next year
Circuit 1
#22 benJAMIN > Fant'sy (#11), Petros (#6), Expulso (#10), Pokeblade (#3) SUM: 30
#32 Elgino > lamp (#1), Gray (#16), queso (#25), soTsoT (#5) SUM: 47

Circuit 2
#2 Losco > Grandmaster7890 (#31), Chains of Markov (#18), Multi Ammiratore (#23), Teres (#30) SUM: 102
#17 Clem > Banbadoro (#16), Michael (#1), Crunchman (#24), Typhlosion48 (#12) SUM: 53

Circuit 3
#19 Livid > Shadows4 (#14), Kaneki-San (#3), Amaranth (#6), Sylveon (#10) SUM: 33
#20 Mich > Lrogue (#13), RSB (#29), MrSoup (#5), Lady Writer (#9) SUM: 56

Circuit 4
#3 Michael > Wigglytuff (#30), Icypenguin (#14), Micaiah (#22), Teres (#7) SUM: 73
#28 Drifting > Amaranth (#5), Lady Writer (#12), Haunter (#13), Satvik (#24) SUM: 54

Circuit 5
#3 Mich > MasterJ (#30), John Dozo (#19), Vioz (#27), Losco (#7) SUM: 83
#20 Lichess > O1V7O2X9O (#13), Adelynn (#4), Munchy (#21), Pigey (#25) SUM: 63

There is an interesting pattern if we look at the finalists of the previous editions, their seeds and their paths to the finals:
- First of all, Michael is the only higher seed to win a final
- Clem is the only player to win a final with a tougher path if we look at the sum of the seeds of the opponents
- In every edition of the Circuit, at least one finalist had to face the winner of an open. Here is the list:
1) Elgino faced lamp > 1 open winner in total
2) Clem faced Banbadoro and Michael > 2 open winners in total
3) Mich faced RSB > 1 open winner in total
4) Michael faced Wigglytuff and Icy, while Drifting faced Amaranth and Lady Writer > 4 open winners in total
5) Mich faced MasterJ and Losco, while Lichess faced Adelynn > 3 open winners in total

Therefore, Circuit 4 and 5 are the only editions where both finalists had to play an open winner. I also want to point out that in Circuit 1 and 3 the cumulative number of open winners faced is 1 but, oddly enough, these editions saw the toughest combined paths to finals for both players. So yeah, it often happens to have a discrepancy between being an open winner and having a high seed

Another trivia involves what is probably one of the main and most peculiar traits of the history of the Circuit: for the fifth year in a row, the winner of Playoffs will be someone who hasn't won an Open in the same year.
However! Lichess and Mich are the second and third person to be in Playoff Finals after reaching at least one final of an open tournament in the same year (Losco did it in 2022). In Mich's case, he even reached two finals this year, as mentioned above.
Since Losco lost against Clem, whoever wins here will be the first player to reach the final of at least one open in the same year AND to win Circuit Playoffs

I'll add more trivia if I find something cool. In the meantime, best of luck to both players and may this be an entertaining and well fought series :p
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top