1. Tricking vs 16. Gondra - Tricking is much better as a player, much more creative as a builder, has better knowledge of all 3 generations and has more experience. Gondra has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me while never really blowing my mind with any of his games. Think this should be very one-sided.
2. Finchinator vs 15. Zokuru - I'm gonna go right ahead and say that I mix up Zokuru, Zuchtrest and Zugubu Royale all the time and I can never remember who's the guy who always brings the same stall team in SM and doesn't play the other 2 tiers. If this person that I'm thinking of is actually Zokuru then I think Finchinator should have a significant edge considering he's got better knowledge across all 3 gens and is just a much more versatile and experienced player.
3. SoulWind vs 14. Bad Ass - Kinda biased on this one. Despite thinking he's a great player SoulWind has yet to impress me in playoffs of any tournament when it comes to what he brings and the plays he makes. Even though Bad Ass was gone for a long ass time, this is a guy who I'd easily expect to always be in playoffs of tour 3 years ago because he was one of the best players on the site. Not sure how motivated he is and SoulWind always seems very motivated to do well in tournaments, but I'm still gonna predict Bad Ass to win because when he was at his peak I saw him as a much better player, and maybe that's still the case.
4. FLCL vs 13. ABR - Don't really know in this one to be honest. I think FLCL's playstyle matches pretty well into ABR's, who I always see making plays that are very good at throwing his opponents' aggression against them, and FLCL is really good at reading those moments. I also think it is relatively easy to predict the type of teams ABR is gonna bring, especially in SM and ORAS, and FLCL can definitely take advantage of these predictable patterns. Despite these advantages, ABR is more solid overall and builds better (even though predictable) teams, not to mention he's less likely to throw away leads, something I've seen fooly do numerous times.
5. Empo vs 12. craing ;_; - This is the series I'm looking forward to the most. Ben has always impressed me a lot as a player but I do feel like he always underperforms when the stakes are high. Empo is one of my favorites to win the trophy as he's been super consistent for a very long time and has super creative takes on all 3 metagames. His aggressive playstyle should also be very good into the defensive teams Ben usually brings. Despite these advantages, I do believe craing usually prepares better for his games and tends to always surprise me when I think he can't anymore, and I could see Empo being caught off-guard and tilting. Hoping for some great games.
6. Ojama vs 11. Welli0u - Gotta predict the french fdp to win here. I haven't seen Welli0u play in a very long time, but his SM never particularly impressed me and I don't think I've seen him play any of the other tiers despite knowing he knows how to play them. Ojama is probably the best player on the site right now in both SM and BW, and his ORAS is very solid as well. Compared to Welli0u, Ojama has way more experience, he's not afraid to pull triggers and he's the better overall player. I can't see him losing this.
7. xray vs 10. FMG - xray is definitely not bad but at the same time he is definitely not very good as well. While I do think his ORAS is pretty clean he's kind of always disappointed me in everything else I've seen him play. FMG is someone I have very high expectations of and I believe this is a matchup he should be able to win for sure.
8. z0mOG vs 9. Kickasser vs The Community - This is honestly a pretty tough prediction to make because z0mOG is my boy, but this asshole predicted me to lose in every round of Slam so he can go fuck himself now. I didn't even want to predict Kickasser to win because this motherfucker sabotaged me in tour last week when I asked in SmogTours chat for ORAS teams and he gave me ONE team with fucking SYNCHRONIZE Alakazam. And guess what? I fucking lost. The biggest loser here is for sure the Tournaments Community who's gonna have to sit and watch for several minutes 2 trash players duke it out in 3 tiers, 2 of which they have no clue what the fuck they're doing, and probably observe some of the worst teams and chokes during it. I guess it's an interesting series just to see how far Mr. Remy Ratatouille can take his cheese in official matches, but I'm expecting baguette guy to not sabotage himself as he did to me and go through to the next round.
