predicts for my favourite tournament of all time
1. M Dragon vs 16. Star - starting off we have a massive highlight; i would not be surprised to see this pairing as the finals of this entire tournament given both of the competitors established prowess in every single one of these gens. m dragon has recently returned to playing the game again after a few years of only managing and has looked as sharp as ever, dominating in formats such as gsc, adv and even sv ubers. star meanwhile has taken the opposite route and has transitioned to manager status recently. i've always been very impressed with both of these players in all 5 of these gens, with the single exception of star's rby. meanwhile, mdragon placed 5th in RBY Invitational III and most recently defeated Felix in the SPL RBY tiebreak, so i'd solidly favour him in rby. another gen where i'd favour him is DPP, which i assume would not be a hot take after MDrag won the most recent DPP cup. meanwhile, as solid as mdrag is in both BW and ADV, those are both tiers i would favour starmaster in. the latter is one of the most impressive ADV players of the past few years, and is coming off of a semifinals cup run following a BW Invitational win. GSC is once again a tier that's no stranger to either, but nonetheless one i'd favour m dragon in, due to his more extensive history with the tier. that said, star's highs in gsc are very respectable, including a 2nd place finish in GSC Invitational II. the main reason i'm bolding m dragon over star here is because i feel like his edges in DPP and RBY are bigger than any of the edges star has, but as i said this is a massive highlight series that i think could go either way with ease. looking forward to seeing how far the winner of this pairing can go.
2. Luthier vs 15. Welli0u - this pairing is perhaps the opposite of the above. while both players are incredibly impressive with numerous accomplishments under their belt, neither of them are really established as oldgen players. luthier popped off and qualified as the second seed with a BW cup victory and a deep GSC run, whereas well qualified as one of the lower seeds off the back of solid dpp and gsc showings. it's a bit hard for me to predict this pairing, as i haven't seen much from these players in several tiers. i'll easily favour luthier in bw off of his cup run, but for the rest its more nebulous to me. i dont think either of these players are much experienced in rby, whereas they both put up strong showings in gsc. all in all, this pairing in my mind comes down to who wants it more, as both players are formidable competitors that have displayed more than enough pokemon fundamentals in the more modern generations. with that in mind, i'll be bolding luthier, as he seems to be in top condition after qualifying as the second seed. additionally, welli0u will be splitting his attention between classic, olt playoffs, and scl, whereas this is the only high profile match that luthier will be playing this week. regardless, i'm looking forward to seeing what both players can showcase in this match.
3. Sapientia vs 14. mind gaming - next up, i'll be predicting my first upset in mind gaming > sapientia. both competitors here are germans, with very different backstories. sapientia is an older player with a 2008 joindate and an SPL trophy dating back to 2011 that has always specified in the generations in this tournament, whereas mind gaming has had a more recent rise to prominence mainly in CG OU. the thing the two of them have in common though, is their dominance over the past two years. mind gaming put up a staggering 23-7 record during 2023 and has not went negative since WCOP 2022, whereas sapientia is coming off of a gsc cup finals appearance and victories in both adv cup and adv revival. mind is by no means established as an oldgens player, except for his most recent spl performance, where he decided to take it upon himself to learn dpp ou and put up a respectable 5-3 performance. despite that, he qualified for these playoffs with relative ease. it'd be easy to give it to sapientia given his being favoured in gsc/adv and being more familiar with the older generations, but i'll go with a slightly hot take here and bold mind, as i truly do believe in the latter having an excellent mind (lol) for pokemon. mind showed during spl season that he can pick up any tier at the highest level if he simply commits himself to it, and i don't think anyone needs to be told how high his ceiling is. if mind gaming puts an appropriate amount of time and effort into preparing this match, i predict he could very well be a dark horse pick to make a deep run here.
4. SoulWind vs 13. crucify - somehow this pairing shares 4 classic finals appearances, between soulwinds win over ABR and losses to McMeghan and august and crucify's dark horse run to place second in classic vii. this is soulwind's 6th straight playoffs appearance, whereas its crucify's 2nd ever, with his last one being 3 years behind. despite being one of the greatest 1v1 players of all time, i'll sadly have to bold against crucify here, as i think sw is one of the best players in the classic bo5 format on the site and easily one of the favourites to win this tournament. both of these players share the same best generation in bw ou, but whereas crucify's 2nd place in bw cup vii and several spl runs were plenty impressive, soulwind is the undisputed goat of the gen. similarly, i think soulwind's history with all generations in this tournament and the vast experience gap between the two will prove too much for crucify, but i will be rooting for william to pull off this upset and go on a second dark horse run for sure.
5. BIHI vs 12. ABR - despite how much i hyped up star vs m dragon, this is my highlight for the round. similar to the aforementioned pairing, this is one i could easily see as finals of the entire tournament, with the two competitors here being some of the greatest of all time. ABR is to me the undisputed goat, and one of the most accomplished players of all time in almost every gen in classic. this is a rematch from the ADV Invitational grand finals, where ABR ended up defeating BIHI two sets to one. i'm looking forward to seeing how they follow up with their adv game here after playing so many of them vs each other in the past month. the main gen i'll favour BIHI in is DPP, where he is indubitably one of the most innovative minds and strongest players of the past few years. despite that, abr is far from a slouch in dpp, making several deep dpp cup runs, most recently on the back of Donphan. on the other hand, i'd most favour abr in rby, as the circuit champion has mastered the tier at an unprecedented rate, accomplishing almost everything there is to accomplish in rby in under a year. similarly, bihi is far from a pushover here. his most notable feat is his dual tiebreak victories over chuva and troller to clutch us the trophy in spl xiii that i will never stop being grateful for. gsc and bw are more interesting cases, as i would say abr's lifetime achievements and understanding of the tier outweigh bihi's here, but bihi is far more warm in both tiers. the frenchman is coming off of a gsc cup finals run, and is currently in BW Invitational top 12. i'm hoping to see this series go to game 5 here, as i think both of these players have spectacular gamesense and understanding of all 5 of these gens, so i can't imagine a single game being a sleeper here. i'll bold ABR here as i truly do believe he's the single best player here bar none, but if anyone is to stop him, bihi would not be a bad choice.
6. Fakes vs 11. JabbaTheGriffin - Fakes undeniably got lucky, as he is by far the favourite to make finals on his side of bracket. he is arguably the best bw player on the website in 2024, and his adv is more than up to par too. even his dpp is nothing to sneeze at, as he easily disposed of sw in the spl xv semifinals tiebreak and made a respectable dpp cup run. while his rby skills are severely lacking, he's put in more than enough effort to learn gsc over the past few months, and is one of the most complete players in these playoffs, and was named by many as one of the favourites heading into the tournament for months now. jabbathegriffin makes his first playoffs appearance in i'm unsure how many years, and has not played a teamtour game since 2018. he has performed solidly in offsite tournaments such as the adv invitationals and obviously played well to qualify for these playoffs, but outside of his adv prowess i'm unsure in which tiers his strengths lie. i expect fakes to beat his opponent in three here, as i'm quite confident in his play, but would like to see jabba surprise me.
7. Zokuru vs 10. elodin - elodin was one of the last people to remain in more than one cup, and managed to qualify off of a pretty strong effort that saw him defeating ABR in DPP Cup, and chuva de perereca/Amaranth in RBY last minute. neither of these players are a stranger to classic playoffs, with zokuru making it before in classic v and elodin having several playoffs appearances dating all the way back to the first classic, where he defeated BKC in the tiebreaker. besides his recent dpp and rby prowess, elodin has put up many positive bw and adv performances over the years in tournaments like spl and wcop, showcasing that he can keep up in every generation. zokuru meanwhile has gone positive in spl in gsc ou for the past few years now, and is more than familiar with the other tiers too, especially bw and adv. neither player should be lacking in experience here, but i'll favour elodin as i think he has the sharper gamesense and better understanding. that said, sleeper pairing that could very well be an extremely good series.
8. Isza vs 9. Luigi - after his first classic playoffs appearance two years ago, isza was thrown into rby ou by the tyrants in a decision that surprised many. despite going negative, he stuck around with the tier and at a very respectable pace became one of the better players the gen has to offer. after an extremely impressive top 4 finish in RBY Inviational V, he qualified for his second ever classic playoffs mainly off the back of his rby cup finals run. luigi likewise has qualified once before in classic viii, as the 9th seed just like now. additionally, he made it to the tiebreaker the year before. the smogon tour champion is quite strong at bw, and has put up a rather impressive set of dpp performances over the past year while staying slightly under the radar. he also made a rather surprising adv cup viii finals appearance. i'm unsure if either of these players are familiar with gsc, but regardless i think both of them have a rather good understanding of most the gens involved in this tournament, and this should be a very good series between two good friends of mine. looking forward to catching this one live.
despite being the least diverse playoffs in years as gb pointed out, i think this is an incredibly stacked playoffs. multiple former classic champions, some older veterans throwing their hat in the ring for the first time in a while, and some really great newgen players trying their hand at the classic format. hoping to catch as many of these matches as i can. rooting for my friends here! if i had to make a hard read on who wins, my 'boring' prediction would be ABR/SW, but i'd love to see classic continue the tradition of no repeat winners, so i'll say fakes.
good luck to all competitors! may the best player win
