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Well we have reached the worst of the bunch, which takes some doing in this pool. Xiri is playing well in seasonals right now but it's seasonals. MJ was ok in mono ubers, but questionable in his other games. Alkione is an ok enough player without any mono team tour experience but he's expected to struggle like the rest of this group. Twilight solace(awful change btw) will probably be lacking as well. Miniors outlook in SM looks bleak, unless some of their better players decide to step into SM. Their building probably falls to Attribute who's enthusastic but probably average and some inexperienced players like Twilight solace as it's hard to see Paleo and ima building for a tier they aren't in with their activity issues.
Predictions for week 2, hopefully I approve my ratio from last week's 17-15, surprised I actually ended up positive
First off, we have a match between two returning MPL winning brands. The last time these two teams faced was in MPL 3 finals, however the current lineups are significantly different from that time. Both these teams struggled quite a bit last week. The Lotads got demolished by the Gengars, a 1-7 score is not something we'd ever expect from such a historically dominant brand. As for the Honchkrows, they barely held their own vs the Cherubis. Hoping for these two teams to come back from that slump and deliver a series worthy of the MPL 3 rivalry. However, we can't ignore the Lotads are lacking their usual star power (pun intended).
Littleroot Lotads (4) vs Hearthome Honchkrows (4)
USUM: Shiba vs Teddeh - Both overall good players who have had some success in past tours, but I guess I'll give this one to Shiba since he had a better game last week.
USUM: col49 vs Clearly - Clearly showed that he's not too rusty last week, and is historically one of the best in mono. Also, it seems like his year+ hiatus was used to cure himself from the curse as his won begun his team's comeback last week. He should win vs whoever subs in for col when he doesn't show up. Hoping he does play tho because I'm interested in seeing how he'd perform since hes a good player in general.
USUM: Charmflash vs Oberyn - Charmflash is the better player so I'll edge him. However, I think he has used the same 3 teams in 3 tournaments, so Oberyn can win if he preps well.
USUM: double switches vs Bitana - Switches has just been in way too big of a slump for way too long. His team choices are really obvious which makes him easy to take advantage of. On top of that, Bit played well last week.
ORAS: Ridley vs Jase The World - Ridley has too much of a history of success to pick against in this matchup. Although, I think he played somewhat questionably last week? Meanwhile, Jase did do well though he had a really good matchup.
ORAS: rozes vs Star - This should be a pretty good game as both are strong players with limited monotype experience/knowledge, so they will be on a similar playing field. Favouring Star as he has a better record in mono tours, he should be able to bounce back from last week.
BW: Insult vs 1 True Lycan - Hard to predict against the man who has more mono team tour wins than all but 3 ppl have played. Although, Insult does have some good BW knowledge I think? He definitely can win with a good team from Zuku.
Bo3: Zukushiku vs Sabella - Despite his year hiatus, I think Zuku is favoured in SM & BW. This should be pretty good series between two players who have been top players in all 3 of these gens.
Overall, this has the potential to be a pretty fun week between two teams who need to redeem themselves after a lacking week 1. A few closes matchups that should give exciting games.
Most interesting game: Zukushiku vs Sabella
As I said before, they were both Monotype players for all 3 gens which distinguishes them from the rest of the Bo3 pool. Looking forward to a great series with some cool teams from both sides.
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Next, we have the battle between the best USM core and the worst USM core (no matter how many times you post that paragraph from PR). Regardless of these rankings, they are also both the only teams to go 4-0 in USM last week.
Meteor Falls Miniors (3) vs Goldenrod Gengars (5)
USUM: Real FV13 vs dahli - dahli has been consistently delivering, no reason to predict against him here. However, Real FV13 beat Harpp & Waszap last MPL so he can definitely pull through.
USUM: MJ vs Waszap - Consistently one of the best
USUM: Xiri vs EviGaro - A closer matchup, but I will edge Evi as she's the better overall player. Also, she finally got revenge against the team that traded her last year.
USUM: Alkione vs Chaitanya - This already happened. The Gengar's might be punished big time for messing up in this matchup, they really shouldn't have lost an USM game to this team. Even worse, this is a loss from their best player. Chait got too cocky and tried to no johns, hope they learned their lesson and decide to actually think before playing last time. The fire was super obvious because they mentioned it before and he decides to bring 6-0'd by Blacephalon.
ORAS: Paleo vs Finchinator - Paleo let Eternally walk all over him last week while Finch managed to win a hopeless matchup, but giving Paleo the benefit of the doubt again. Hoping last week was a momentary slip up and hes back in good form. If he's not, Finch will easily capitalize on that like he did with Ashaury.
ORAS: Attribute vs ArkenCiel - Unfortunate mu since I'd like to see both finally win more. Edging Attribute since Arken is one of the people with a lower win rate on the sheet. Attribute has performed better in ORAS so he gets the edge. Arken did pretty decent last week despite his bad matchup, but he was a bit too passive in my opinion. I think this could be a pretty nice game.
BW: Freeroamer vs KuraiTenshi26 - Taking a chance here by bolding Kurai over fan favorite and generally better player Freeroamer. Kurai always manages to deliver when he faces opponents that are regarded as much better than him. In fact, he won last them they faced off in Monotype WCoP. Nonetheless, Freeroamer is great and obviously can win this too.
Bo3: ima vs Feitan the steam - I've already shown that I'm high on Feitan multiple times, so I don't think I need to elaborate much here. He's the better player here and did well last week. Ima had some rough matchups last week so can't blame his losses on him, tho he might have been able to win them I think?
Overall, ORAS & BW look really fun. USUM looks like another dominant win for the Gengars but they already lost one so who knows.
Most Interesting game: Freeroamer vs KuraiTenshi26
Looking forward to this rematch between the two.
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Here we have a team who came back from a unfavourable spot vs one that choked their lead.
Two Island Tapus(3) vs Cherrygrove Cherubis (5)
USUM: trash vs Wincon - Wincon is a good player if we ignore last week, while trash lost grass vs electric really badly which I thought only I could pull off.
USUM: Pak vs Bluxio - Pak is the better player and Bluxio has been quite absent from mono lately
USUM: Catalystic vs DugZa - Cata did well in mono in exhibition apparently? I think DugZa is the better of the two. However, he has some nerve issues so he might slip up in a big public game.
USUM: Days for Dabs vs Brisked - To DFD: 29 > 32. Jokes aside, I feel like DFD can probably win this but I want to see Brisked win. DFD's ranking is obviously influenced by the poor attitude he's displayed in the past. He doesn't seem like too bad a guy from some team discord's, but he needs to stop acting up so much.
ORAS: Sae vs Cam - I guess Vid wasnt able to play this week? Which is unfortunately since I liked the look of his team last week. Sae's the better player, and I don't really know much about Cam and ORAS.
ORAS: Cell vs Arifeen - Feen had a bad game last week tho his matchup was bad. Similar to Paleo, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt due to his usual success. Cell is still trying to polish off his rust.
BW: dcae vs Jyph - Jyph has more experience in BW Mono and has shown some good performances with solid builds. As always, dcae can def pull this off as he's a good player.
Bo3: FLCL vs zugubu royale - Zugu has been insisting that he plays Bo3 so it's time for him to put his money where his mouth is. His unique builds should be able to catch his opponent off guard.
I think the downfall of the Tapus this week will be the fact that lax will probably be very absent due to WCoP. They are most likely going to use recycled teams from the past. Of course, recycled teams can definitely win. While my predictions make this look one-sided, this series can really go either way as many of the games are close. Unfortunately, not really any too exciting matchups on paper.
Most interesting game: FLCL vs zugubu royale
Bo3 is fun to watch and both these players should provide good games. Hoping to see some fun teams from zugu.
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Next, we have two teams looking to bounce back from a week 1 loss
Sunyshore Surskits (3) vs Cinnabar Charizards (5)
USUM: Eien vs Vodoom - Hard to imagine Eien being 0-2. However, Vodoom is good at prepping so unless Eien changes stuff up this can easily go the other way.
USUM: Havens vs Harpp - Harpp suffered a very big mental defeat last week and prematurely forfeit a game he could still win. However, he should still get credit for almost winning a bad MU. He needs to use a better team and needs to be levelheaded regardless of the situation. Last week was rather uncharacteristic of the usually calculated Harpp. Nonetheless, he's definitely still advantaged here as his opponent played poorly last week.
USUM: Feliburn vs Nailec - Feli is the better player overall. Nailec needs to reflect more in his games, as he made a mistake in his last one.
USUM: Decem vs Alpha Rabbit - Rabbit is the better overall player but giving young Decem another chance
ORAS: Eternally vs Izaya - Izaya would cry in my pms if I don't bold his names two weeks in a row. He seems to be bouncing back from his bad Mono WCoP and has more experience. However, Eternally did amazing last week vs Paleo so he definitely shouldn't be ruled out. Totally can see this going in his favour.
ORAS: Corporal Levi vs maroon - Didn't think I'd ever bold maroon but he did almost win last week so he gets credit. Levi had a rough matchup last week, so that shouldn't discredit him much. With appropriate prep, this can easily go his way.
BW: trace vs North - North did good despite a bad mu last week, and just has so much BW experience. trace does have a habit of doing well so he could surprise North.
Bo3: Raichy vs Trichotomy - Raichy did well last week, but I was impressed by how Trich delivered his USM endgame last week. The matchup was looking kinda hopeless but he smoothly set himself up to win.
Overall, I think this series is pretty interesting. Like for the above series, I think a lot of the games are pretty close. It'll be interesting to see who comes out on top. Also, they have some games that I'm looking forward to watching.
Most interesting game: Eien vs Vodoom
A fun matchup between two old friends. It's going to be interesting to see what they prep for each other as both tend to bring some unorthodox builds.
Anyways, hope we get some better matches than last week. Have fun and don't forget to @matchas your games in the monotype discord !
let it be known that Chaitanya tried to demoralize me with a straight-up counter team in tests, shitty manager
edit: let it be known that i played numerous, rigorous tests in order to formulate the optimal team that i constructed myself in order to emerge victorious in this battle, thank u
