I'm somewhat back so here are some biased predictions
Team Hoopa (8) vs. Team Latias (4)
Gen 9 Random Battle: shiloh vs JJ09LIE - JJ is a menace, but so is shiloh. I'll go with the most experienced player.
Gen 8 Random Battle: Zap vs Tuthur - Zap dodged Borida two weeks ago in the most dubious manner but it doesn't change the fact they have been one of the most stable presence in rbtt gen8 for a long time now.
Gen 7 Random Battle: bobomania vs Lalaya - bobo is having a difficult season but idk I like seeing lalaya malding every single week on every single latias loss so I hope it keeps going.
Gen 6 Random Battle: Tomahawk vs Lady Writer - LW and Borida will play their tiebreaker match on the tennis court apparently which is cool enough for me to mention; as for rands, LW doesn't have anything to prove anymore.
Gen 4 Random Battle: TheFranklin vs Aquaa - I'm very hyped by this match up as these opponents are two players I look up to when it comes to pokemon. TheFranklin may feel a little bit more at home in the format I'm afraid.
Gen 3 Random Battle: Chains of Markov vs Ereshkigal - Eresh played in an unspeakable manner last week and still got rewarded for it by the gods of rands, now I have to request him to step up to at least don't make his 7-1 result looks too fraudish.
Gen 1 Random Battle: YBW vs Leru - little rule of thumbs: what you know about OU pretty much doesn't apply to rby rands and you actually need to practise in the format! that said, I think YBW experience should prevail this time unless shit happens once more.
Gen 9 Hackmons Cup: Shadows4 vs sunsets - Week 9 of not fielding the goat sunsets on gen8 while they put Tuthur there, such a waste; shadows4 is one of the great hc players but I have the feeling rng with be where the sun sets.
Gen 8 Battle Factory: temp vs Hacker - two players with a great record so far but I chose to believe temp magic will not stop as of yet.
Gen 8 BSS Factory: Emboar02 vs Dragonillis - courage Drago! Emboar02 has been trading blows against the rest of the bssf field with more than little success and it should keep happening, not to mention their week 2 games has not been in favour of the frenchman.
Gen 8 Random Doubles Battle: odr vs Eeveon7 - odr vs chris in week 7 was one of the most spectacular series of rbtt6 imo so I'm very eager to watch my old team mate do some great stuff in dubs once again
Mystery Box: Eeveeto vs MichaelderBeste2 - The holder of Smogon best randbats player award mdb2 is looking forward to put his insane versatility to good use with mbox while Eeveeto is probably looking forward to show he's not cannon fodder here. I'm not sure what to expect from the latter when it comes to format picking - DHC might be a viable strategy in order to cloud waters but I would hate them for that. Michael has a wide range, gen7 BSSF and gen2 seem to be the most reasonable for me. As for gen9, Michael is definitely favoured.
Team Yveltal (6) vs. Team Zarude (6)
Gen 9 Random Battle: pokeblade101 vs Alpha Rabbit - a rabbit enters the field! too bad for them it's against pokeblade, let's see if they'll take that occasion to show greatness like in WCOR, or if they'll just go down by the edge of the blade.
Gen 8 Random Battle: Glop vs Sylveon used calm mind - Sylv is a noob no cap they'll get glopped.
Gen 7 Random Battle: Legendary vs Betathunder - that's the OG match up I want to see! Beta is still pretty much dominant in the format, but definitely not a whole class above Legendary so should definitely be interesting.
Gen 6 Random Battle: Buhrito vs Micaiah - Buhrito is rands rookie of the year so far, but I think if anyone has something to say it would be the leader of the Dawn Brigade. Should be very interesting.
Gen 4 Random Battle: Dj Breloominati♬ vs SMB - I don't think SMB showing this year reflects on their skills at all and I hope this will be a good occasion to show them off in a less unfortunate manner
Gen 3 Random Battle: xGang vs freezai - xGang had a rough start but seemed to be somewhat back to their RBTT4 form; hope I'm not jinxing them here lol.
Gen 1 Random Battle: nicomirra123 vs Mikon - nessa came short in their last face off but I didn't get to watch the series so I'm not sure what happened exactly. Both players are solid, still favouring the zarude player a little more.
Gen 9 Hackmons Cup: platinumCheesecake vs MultiAmmiratore - Chiori and platty are as experienced in hc as a hc player can get. Who will prevail, the hc guide writer or the 5-0 ccc snom player? I picked the one with the best rbtt5 records for placeholding purpose.
Gen 8 Battle Factory: kythr vs Wigglytuff - apparently I'm not cool enough to be in the werk but no hard feelings. Is my 0-0 records not good enough? okay. Also it's bf bullshit so I coinflipped it.
Gen 8 BSS Factory: luisin vs Mishimono - Mishimono really did not impress me in any capacity so far while luisin has been cooking throughout the whole season, i don't see why it should change in poffs.
Gen 8 Random Doubles Battle: Memoric vs teresbahji - teres won their last head to head encounter. Both are great players, even though teres plays in a peculiar manner and seem to be able to stirr up waters pretty well against the usual opponent. Not that Memo is the usual opponent so unless their fighting spirit collapses mid series, I'm giving them a tiny little edge here.
Mystery Box: LordST vs LoSconosciuto - I'm a bit surprised to see LST in mbox as they were very likely to face Losconosciuto there, who has been on fire for a couple years straight now. The Italian should be favored in gen9; and I'm expecting them to pick gen2. Not sure what LST would go to - maybe gen5 or gen7 bssf?
And since it's fun I'mma make some tiebreaker predictions for each matches:
Hoopa vs Latias: 1-2
Gen9 Random Battles: shiloh (or TheFranklin?) vs Lady Writer | LW seems the natural pick there and I don't think there's much competition here from hoopa; not that shiloh (or arce9?) are not able to navigate a 55-45 match up to victory, so can really go either way.
Gen8 Battle Factory: (Hoopa pick): temp vs Door Money | Battle Factory seems to be the natural Hoopa pick as temp has been very successful and it would naturally drag michael there (although I think there's more mileage for Latias to put Hacker there and keep michael in their own pick), and go in the way of Latias own picking strategy. Gen4 would also be a solid idea (and I think it's a more solid pick nonetheless), since Trade is not playing anymore, in the case they don't already field TheFranklin in gen9. In which case I think having Hacker in BSSF and Michael in gen4 is more reasonable and also because i want to see michael vs arce9. Gen3 to exploit the same issues as we did could be reasonable too but given how it went for us, I'd say it's an overrated strat :p
Gen8 BSSF: (Latias pick): Emboar02 vs MichaelderBeste2 | Hoopa suffers from the same "weakness" as we did in the BSSF department since it kinda prevents them to field their own big 3 here so it should be a clever pick from Latias once more. I feel like going dubs or gen8 would be a mistake since it gives big room for odr to step in and be marvelous. I'm not certain whether going with odr or even TheFranklin above their usual bssf player like we did isn't the play but that requires insights I don't have.
All in all I think a tiebreaker favors Latias as they can cover gen9 with LW and pretty much anything with Michael and then see how to face anything Hoopa picks.
Yveltal vs Zarude: 2-1
Gen9 Random Battle: glop vs LoSconosciuto | unfortunately for Zarude they can't go Losco/sylv/teres with sylv on gen9 since they're a stinky hater of the format, so one of their most versatile player will be stuck there facing one of Yveltal's hard hitter. If Zarude pick anything that isn't gen7 then it would be blade, but in case of the gen7 pick (I'll go back to that later), I can see glop stepping in very well so that blade can play gen7
Gen8 BSSF (Yveltal picks): luisin vs Sylveon used calm mind | Yveltal has two choices that make more sense than the others: Gen3 and BSSF, as it's two formats where they have their main threats and where Zarude doesn't have much interest fielding their usual players. If it's gen3 then teresbahji should be the obvious pick; if it's gen8 bssf I think Sylveon is actually the way to go as they're more experienced and knowledgeable in the format than it looks at first sight. Either way I'm favouring Yveltals here
Gen7 Random Battle (Zarude picks): pokeblade101 vs betathunder | Okay. Hear me out. Zarude don't have a clever way out of this. Picking gen8, trying to get the losco/sylv/teres action going would be suicidal as glop/blade would both be on their main formats here. Dubs doesn't look brighter as Memoric is as great as an opponent as Teres. So what's left? variable formats. Gen4, Gen7 and HC. HC has the merit of making Yveltal not going with the glop/blade duet, especially if they pick BSSF themselves, but come on who picks hc in a tiebreaker lol. Gen4 and Gen7 both get higher variance than your usual, but I think dragging blade all the way to gen7 and have Losco play glop slightly improves their chances in the matter.
In the end it mostly boils down to who of Losco vs blade/glop will get the best match up and what format zarude actually end up picking.
all of these could go either way)
