Indigo Platoon (5) vs (5) Power Plant Dynamos
SS OU: ez vs Shafofficiel - While ez's semis game was One Of The Games Of All Time, he still has a veritable platoon of support behind him. Shaf is definitely not a bad player by any means, but I believe him to be simply outclassed here. It's possible that he pulls out some ridiculous offense and beats ez in a fast paced game, but I find his disadvantage here to be insurmountable otherwise.
SS OU: MichaelderBeste2 vs Gtcha - We have a combination of players receiving support in this one, though Michael appears to be leveraging his support slightly better. I believe Gtcha to be a better player taking the support context out of the equation due to Michael's tendency to make major missteps when it matters most as well as not having a signature playoff performance, but the ghost type is super effective against itself here so you really never know what will happen here.
SS OU: Finchinator vs bbeeaa - Moving on, we have the two most honest OU players starting in this finals, and in spite of all my instincts telling me to predict against Finchinator, I am going to bold him. Finch has been on an absolute tear in recent months, in SS OU especially, and I'm counting on him to continue riding that wave here even though bbeeaa is absolutely on fire right now. I feel like this tour is Finch turning the corner as a player and a signature win in finals like this would be the one to cement him as a top 5 player.
SS Ubers: Tony vs Kate - This is a really hype matchup and even though Kate won in semis, I respect Tony way too much as a player to believe that he would lose against someone in their first official tournament playoffs. Tony has been kind of a crackhead in the builder lately and I expect that to swing an advantage for him against someone who admittedly had a pretty messy semis game after getting off to an early lead.
SS DOU: Z Strats vs Spurrific - I have a huge amount of respect for both of these guys and I'm super glad that DOU gets the star matchup that it deserves to send off gen 8 for finals, and ray appears to be past his somewhat puzzling midseason slump. That being said, Justin has a very high ceiling as a player, and I'm feeling an upset here due to a combination of intelligent prep to catch ray off guard combined with a masterfully executed game.
SS UU: TDK vs SoulWind - It's nigh impossible to predict against TDK in UU this tour, he has been absolutely dominant and shown that he's head and shoulders above the rest of the pool. SoulWind is obviously one of the greatest players of all time, so him winning this game isn't out of the realm of possibility, but he has been pretty middling this tour and that is going to count big against the best UU player on the site rn.
SS RU: McMeghan vs Welli0u - Well looked sensational in his semifinals match, as if he'd been playing RU the entire tour, and Roro took out Ajna in a pretty funny game overall, so I'm definitely looking forward to this matchup. I have seen Well deliver in big situations time and time again for way too long (need I remind you of his dominant WCOP this year) to predict against him here, so I'll favor him in this matchup.
SS NU: GXE vs BIHI - The GXE retain has absolutely been worth it for the platoon, as he's put up an excellent 7-3 record this tour, but he's still facing one of the most seasoned veterans on the site here. BIHI has some magic pixie dust or some shit when it comes to playoffs in these tours because he just keeps on winning when it matters most, and it's become basically impossible to predict against him in a playoffs game at this point.
SS PU: Leru vs jonfilch - Leru has been a solid slot in for PU this tour, but jonfilch has just been far and away the best PU player in the tour. He has tons of impressive wins against the upper end of the pool, and that combined with the great team support being provided by Excal has me predicting him to run away with this one.
SS LC: tazz vs Ren-chon - This is honestly a really odd LC matchup for finals of the tour and I think it's a little indicative of how all over the place SS LC has been as a whole. Ren-chon is clearly not an LC main and got plastered in the semifinals whereas tazz has had a respectable performance in spite of some people airing concerns going into the tour. I've gotta pick the player with more experience and metagame knowledge here in tazz to finish out my predictions for the main series.
Will be back for predicts if this goes to tb!
