Just doing OU predicts because it's late and I'm tired.
Jytcampbell vs Jimmy Turtwig - Jyt has been pretty solid in 2019, suffering his first real misstep last week when he refused to knock the helmet off of Tony's torn for whatever reason. However, I feel like he's been a lot more solid than Jimmy in SM OU as a whole and is definitely more in touch with the current metagame, so I'll give him a decent edge here.
dice vs Kory2600 - Kory's underperformed quite a bit this tour, albeit partially because of some unfortunate circumstances, and dice is coming in off of a pretty miraculous win last week in which Gondra didn't realize dice's Magnezone lacked Thunderbolt and ended up losing as a result. I'll give dice a slight edge in a game where we should see some cool techs like
this that hopefully comes down to the wire.
Eo Ut Mortus vs ramboss - Eo has had a great tour and is coming off of an excellent win against SW whereas I've never really been impressed by ramboss, so he's definitely got a big edge here.
FMG vs
Tricking - Both players have had solid performances this year, but Tricking is much more experienced and I think that FMG is gonna have a tough time dealing with his unorthodox playing style as well as his team choices. However, FMG is no slouch and could definitely steal a game from Tricking if he plays up to his ceiling and catches Tricking on some of his more risky predictions.
HSA vs xImRaptor - Neither player has been lighting the world on fire this snake, but I'm more confident in HSA's feel for the game as well as having a bit more experience between STour + WCOP, so I think he'll be able to take this game pretty comfortably provided he doesn't have to deal with
this matchup.
blarghlfarghl vs
Indigo Plateau - This prediction is pretty blasphemous considering that blargh hasn't lost a SM OU teamtour game in 2019 while Indigo has been struggling mightily in his debut. However, from my experience with him, Indigo is a solid player that has just been dealing with some bad nerves and I think he'll be able to overcome them here. The real reason why I'm predicting blargh to lose is because shake finally bolded him and we already know what happened there, wrap.
xtra$hine vs Relous - The power have textbooks have helped xtra put on a solid showing in snake thus far whereas Relous hasn't done anything in particular that's caught my eye as of late. I'm definitely interested to see whether or not xtra finally realizes that 0 spatk fleur tbolt magearna is dogshit or not this week, so I'll be tuning in. Regardless, I'll have to give xtra the benefit of the doubt because of his arguably more impressive wins and experience.
z0mOG vs Lopunny Kicks - This is probably the closest game of the week, both players have a pretty similar playstyle and are good enough to beat anyone in the pool on a good day for sure. I feel like punny is the more solid player whereas zom is better at preparing prior to the start of the game. I think that zom's gonna do a good job preparing before the game to get a strong matchup and ride it out to a closely contested win.
Charmflash vs Empo - This has definitely got to be the game of the week as these are definitely two of the hottest players on the block right now, with Empo coming off absolutely dismantling Ojama in OLT whereas za just completed his own OLT 3-0. Definitely excited to see the new variation of Ditto bullshit that za cooks up this week and whether or not Empo can break past it. There's sure to be some flashy plays and unique sets this game. Let's just hope that za doesn't make us sit through another 7 million turn block pp stalling sequence this time around.
Hayburner vs Eeveeto - Hay has been severely slumping as of late between losing his first game in snake and promptly getting benched after loing to sacri in OLT, but eeveeto isn't a worldbeater by any means himself and hay seemed to regain form a bit in his OLT series against typh last week. There's also the fact that eeveeto could go AWOL and randomly bring a rotom heat and get smashed, so I feel pretty good bolding Hayburner's name here in spite of his recent slump.
Insult vs Gilbert arenas - Insult's off to a strong 2-0 start this snake, with convincing wins against two of the more hyped players going into this tour, whereas marcop still really doesn't have that much experience in SM OU and it's tough to gauge where his head's at during some of his games. I expect insult to bring home a nice win here with another solid team and good play.
Tace vs
xray - Tace has had a really solid year and xray doesn't look too hot in SM rn, but xray is still a solid player with good fundamentals and good team support should he choose to ask for it, so I think he'll be able to surprise my man tace and come up with an upset win, as odd as that is to say.
teal6 vs ABR - Ok I know that this prediction looks like absolute autism but hear me out LOL. Teal is a strong player that's executed well in both of his LC games thus far and obviously felt confident enough in his own abilities to ask ABR to slot against him this week. Not only that, but teal definitely seems like the kind of guy to embrace the underdog role and use that to motivate himself to come up with a big win.
frisoeva vs
ima - I've always been pretty low on friso, and ima has quietly had a nice 2-0 start, so I'm definitely gonna take ima to come up with the upset here considering his great teammate support combined with his simply superior playing abilities.
TonyFlygon vs Chaitanya - Chait has shown the potential to have an obscene playing ceiling and turn some heads for sure, but Tony's just a solid player that's been around forever and he should be able to win this and keep up the momentum from last week.
Gondra vs
Mana - Gondra's brain kind of went haywire last week, so I'm definitely hesitant to bold his name here, especially considering the fact that he's playing against someone as solid as Mana. Both guys are obviously solid players and this could definitely go either way, but I've always felt like Mana's a bit more solid and he has strong team support on top of that so I'm gonna favor him here.
YJH vs
Santu - I'm not super high on either of these players, but Santu is relatively hyped by a lot of people for his overall playing prowess whereas yjh has been anything but consistent with regards to his play. Either guy could light it up and take home this game in dominating fashion, but I'm gonna favor Santu here because of his solid play around the board lately.
Sacri' vs Cdumas - Cdumas seems to have regained form since SPL following a pretty fortunate win against Kory whereas Sacri's snake games haven't been super impressive, so Cdu seems to be the natural favorite here. However, Sacri definitely has the aggressive type of playstyle that can abuse Cdu's tendencies and is coming off of a really convincing win against Star in OLT, so I'll take him to surprise some people and beat Cdu here.
BKC vs
Tamahome - This would be an absolute dream matchup to see in DPP OU, but unfortunately its in SM. Both of the guys are definitely not as consistent here compared to DPP, but they're still obviously solid enough to win. It's tough to predict BKC to start any tour off 0-3, regardless of tier, but Tama's just got a lot more experience playing SM and seems to play the tier much more actively. I wouldn't put it past BKC to regain his form in dramatic fashion with a signature win against Tama though.
Star vs Updated Kanto - Kanto's actually been really solid lately and it wouldn't be all that blasphemous for him to win this game, but Star's been playing this game like a fiend lately and placed highly in the power rankings for a reason. While I don't necessarily agree with shake's evaluation that star's the second best player in this pool, he's still good as fuck and should be able to win against Kanto here.