OU: Mana vs ZoroDark - (50/50) Starting off with a coin-toss wow. I'd probably rate zoro's ability to play higher than mana's but I'd 10x over expect mana to show up better prepped. Mana is innovative and forward-thinking, Zoro will probably fall back on comfort and not take much time of his own to see that the team is a success. Zoro is really good at assessing gamestate and playing exactly how he needs to to win. Mana is never a slouch, but there are a few instances where I think he shows lapses in judgment, and he also has (comparatively) less experience in these higher pressure PO type games than Zoro, so it's a tough call to me.
OU: Twixtry vs Tamahome - (35/65) Tamahome is playing mostly good pokemon whereas I think twixtry is falling a bit short of what it takes. Tama has also been more varied in his team choices than I'd have expected him to be going in to this tournament, which should keep the taipans builders on their toes. The experience in high pressure situations is a total lopside, and I think Tamahome is a conventional favorite to win should he not get styled on in the builder.
OU: ABR vs Updated Kanto - (55/45) I'm anticipating this game to deliver on the hype for sure. In my perception, Kanto's playstyle matches very strongly into ABR's, and he is on an upswing in terms of results showing that he is a consistent threat to be reckoned with. However, I'll favor ABR because I'm not big on the teams Kanto has been using and I think he will have to change it up to not start off from the backfoot due to ABR's innovative means of counter-picking.I think that (if they weren't matched now), this likely would've been a possible tiebreak OU game, at least given how Kanto has looked the strongest of the Astros OU.
OU: ima vs Cdumas - (55/45) Probably a traditional upset to favor ima if one didn't know as much about the two battlers as (I'd like to think) that I do, but I believe ima has shown a lot of growth in his ability to play whatever style fits the game and look strong. Cdumas started off a lot stronger than he finished whereas ima has been great all tour, but records aside I think that ima will be able to outplay if he does his own thing. I expect an even, no-nonsense duo of teams with neither playing starting with too good or bad of a matchup.
OU: ramboss vs Insult - (35/65) I'm just not sold on ramboss's playing nor his ability to prep. It feels like his teams are all, in some way, matchup gambles that either win or lose before he can begin to play the game. Personally, I think insult can be a bit linear in his team choices and a lot of his losses come from this, but as a player he definitely has proven to be good at assessing gamestate and playing to a win condition early. I feel like I don't have much to comment on ramboss's ingame prowess just because it feels like his games often don't come to that.
OU: Tricking vs Corazan - (55/45) Corazan is a surprisingly good battler, he pulls the trigger like any veteran player and also has the god-touch of RNG, making him a potent kingtoppler. I don't really think that there is a huge playing discrepancy between these two guys. However... Somehow, nobody has been able to figure out how to overcome Tricking's total reliance on the same team every single tournament game he plays. Just prep for ditto chansey skarm and it'll be a fair fight, seriously. Get charm to build corazan's team and it's (50/50).
OU: Kebab mlml vs Tace - (40/60) I sincerely hate watching tace play. Every game it just feels like he boosts up a sweeper until he crits or freezes, which he usually does. But he has been playing well this snake and his style seems to work so I can't fault it at all. Lucky and good is scarier than just good. Kebab is really wild in his approach to the game, giving me the impression that he'd just as easily beat someone considered way better than him as he'd lose to someone seen as way worse than him. I don't have strong opinions on the team selections, but I do think tace's player identity is stronger.
OU: Jimmy Turtwig vs Welli0u - (40/60) Welli0u has kind of fit in as just a stand-in "good player" at this stage in his career, and doesn't really overattach to any one team or playstyle. He is the type to always coast to victory vs players weaker than he is ingame. Jimmy is, in my opinion, still not a stable OU slot and it shows to me in the way he seems to plan out his games, not really having the touch of a more seasoned gen 7 player. His record this season was solid, albeit vs weaker players, but I don't consider welli0u to be someone that Jimmy can rely on his jack-of-all-trades skillset to beat handily.
