SoulWind vs Mako - The picture of consistency vs the up-and-comer of SV OU. Mako caught the eye of many with her win last round over Empo, but to long-time observers it’s perhaps less surprising as she has been a consistent winner across formats the last year or two. Mako’s level of play should be regarded among the better wherever she is slotted. With this said, SoulWind has been quietly dominant the entire tournament. His run has arguably been the most impressive and I do not see it stopping here. He uses good teams and makes good plays. That’s really all there is to it. Mako went above-and-beyond last week and that type of herculean effort would be mandatory to advance here. It’s possible, but there’s also more risk in Mako’s team picks as we saw with her recent SCL game, so I’ll go with SW in 3, 60/40 set
Ewin vs Rewer - Ngl Rewer felt like a fish out of water to me last round until I watched some of his replays. Dude is in strong form with solid brings; impressive run for a guy I associated with BW more than SV coming in. Ewin has been a pleasant surprise, too, demolishing people with one of the more polarizing brings of the tournament. I do think that he has the edge here as Rewer is forced to prepare hard for Ursaluna fat just given history while Ewin can go any number of ways. This type of prep dynamic fascinates me and I am curious what risks both take. I rate Ewin a bit higher, but expect this to be closely contested and go 3. 55/45
clean vs emforbes - Emilio is just one of the best Pokemon players out there. It seems like he really began dedicating himself to this format and the results are showing. I am really impressed by his level of play. Teambuilding wise I think it’s more of a toss-up and I generally like what clean has done to get to this point, but I think there’s a slight step behind in terms of execution. Great run for both either way, 60/40
mimilimi vs xavgb - Xav is due. He’s one of the best players on the site without a chip and it’s time to cash-in. He builds well, he plays well, and he pays great attention to detail. No notes. mimilimi has been a surprise and his improvement as a player is super impressive. I love their outside the box teambuilding and I think his future projects very well; if anyone can upset a likely favorite, it’s him. I just don’t think it’s in the cards. Very excited to see what both bring as there’s plenty of metagame ripples that can come of a set like this. Appointment viewing for SV OU enthusiasts I would say. 65/35
