[TMS] Nails vs stax [SPA] -- Nails did everything right in his game, and with a little help from Frania, was able to pull out a win despite the dire matchup. stax is an all time great and similarly had help from his opponent Week 1, but I find it impossible to predict against Nails right now. I was also more of a fan of Nails play than stax's this week, but both definitely did well and had somewhat similar solid builds. This is my highlight match for sure!
[ISL] Mishimono vs
Qwello Lee [DYN] -- Besides from risking Lando-I multiple times in the beginning of the game, Mishimono executed very well, although I don't think I'm as big as a fan of his team as most. I don't know how well the Islanders or Dynamos build (although I was a fan of Qwello Lee's Week 1 team a bit more), so I think if we see a somewhat even matchup, Qwello Lee should take it based on being the slightly stronger player. Also, if there's someone here I expect to gain a matchup advantage, it's him.
[BRE] Spurrific vs
Z Strats [PLA] --
[SHO] Frania vs Paraplegic [GIB] -- Frania and Paraplegic's play Week 1 were probably the two I was least thrilled about. Z Strats went over it quite well, but Frania activating Weakness Policy Diancie and not utilizing Rillaboom to spread Toxic Spikes was not great, while Paraplegic kept Parting Shotting into the Landorus-T, never clicked Superpower into the Porygon2, and set Tailwind at the end against stax's Trick Room structure. There's also a chance Frania just went for the Toxapex - Chansey - Celesteela matchup fish and did minimal prepping / testing, since he didn't seem to be the best pivot and has no Doubles support. I am going to bold Frania; I think motivated Frania can take this, but that's also quite the risk, but I'm still going to bold him anyway.
[TER] Actuarily vs
Memoric [FOX] -- Despite my brain telling me to pick against Memoric in these Official Team Tournaments, I am once again going to bold him. I think the idea behind Magmar was fine (theoretically puts a stop to Shift Gear Genesect / Dragon Dance Kyurem-B) but I think he got a little too cute, especially when Volcarona was right there. Both players had dire matchups Week 1, but I think Memoric's team overall was fine (especially if you remove Magmar for Incineroar or Volcarona and potentially swap Water-types) and just got shredded by Landorus-I, while on the other hand I never would have approved Urshifu-less Rain from Actuarily. One of them needs to step up this week, and I'm going to favor Memoric there.
I am a big fan of all these matchups. Top three are between the six strongest players in the pool, while the bottom two see four players who had a rough Week 1 and desperately need to bounce back and avoid the 0-2.
I will also be continuing to stream (most) non-Platoon SCL DOU games with
Z Strats and friends on
Twitch, while I have also started saving + uploading all VODs to
Youtube. They're a lot of fun to do!