Tournament World Cup of Randbats 2023 - Qualifying Round

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Celever

Celever

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I'm gonna do my own power rankings (obviously ommitting UK) because A) fun and B) I disagree with a lot of the conventional takes so far haha.

1. USNE
But not this one because, obviously, this is a broken squad lol. 2 of the 3 highest value Koraidons from this year's RBTT in RSQ and CDE have key spots in this squad, as gens 4 and 6 have high skill ceilings and floors in these qualifying rosters. But it's probable that it won't matter because the expectation is this team sweeps the quals a little lol. We'll see how it goes, because there's certainly a degree of pressure for this squad. Let's hope for a couple starters to hardcore flop, so Rogue gets some gameplay in his first ever team tournament!

2. Europe + Africa
EU + Africa is extremely threatening, with a number of elite players in their respective formats (Shaneghoul, mj, Xceloh, SANKE CARP); great all-rounders (RoFnA, Petros, EpicBoost, Amir); and then some lesser-known players who are hopefully motivated to make names for themselves this tournament. This is one of the more consistent squads in qualifiers, and I'd approximate a 70%ish winrate during this round robin for this team. They also have, IMO, the strongest sub bench out of the teams I'm ranking here. Everyone's sleeping on these folks for no reason tbh.

3. Oceania
Now time for the opinions people are gonna clown me for. IDK how Drifting ft. damien the genius did it, but this is a really threatening squad. Both managers, Steven, and Stallion are high value threats in their formats, while Trade is a player that I never feel like is that skillful when I spectate or play vs them but then just wins anyway and I don't really understand it, which makes me believe they function on a higher plane of cognition than me. I've never seen them play gen 8 though lol. Everyone else seems to have potential, as Chloe and the two dogs are capable clickers, and the real hero iloverandbats is here to demonstrate just how much they love them.

-----^---would--be--stunned--if--they--don't--qual---^-----

4. France
France has a very capable squad here, with recently surfaced rands GOATs like W2S, Ereshkigal, and Dragonillis. At the same time, I think this squad is balanced in a way where generally the strongest players are on formats that are most susceptible to being decided by bad RNG, while the more consistent formats are being played by the weaker parts of the squad. Dragonillis is the main exception here as gen 2 is consistent and Dragonillis is very good, but gen 2 is pretty stacked in these quals so even that can't be depended on. France by all means should qual, but the balance here leaves it susceptible to getting sucker punched by bad RNG and cheesed out.

----^---France--Tier---^----

5. US South
US South probably has the most lopsided roster in qualifiers, with some huge threats, though I don't think anyone on the team is best in format and the mean skill level is below average. There are several players I'd expect to go positive, but I think US South only needs those players to get lucked a few times to miss out on qualifying. GXE, gen 8s, RSB, pia, and royzin are on paper doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but all of them are playing some of the highest skill formats in this group of qualifying players, so I think of the more "standard" known rands player teams, they have the highest chance of missing out.

6. Spain
Spain is definitely the "tours" team of these qualifiers, with rands players like seroo and Mirbro starting on the bench for some reason. There are good threats within this team, and I'd expect 5 or 6 to be likely to go positive during quals which gives them a good shot at qualling, but there are definitely also weak links which adds pressure to the highest skill and familiarity with rands slots. In Randbat Team Tournaments, teams full of tours players tend to be pretty zero-sum, and it depends a lot on the mentality and investment from the squad. Hopefully patriotism will power these high skill clickers to learn the intricacies of rands, otherwise I think they might get blindsided by the style of gambits and cycling that rands players make.

----^---Mid--Tier---^----

For the remaining teams, I would roughly put the power rankings as Mexico -> Turkey -> Bangladesh -> Venezuela. Mexico has a legit squad here and has the potential to do extremely well if the more unknown players are also good, they could end up dominating a little following the big names heading the team. Everyone else I want to see do well, and I think there is potential for serious upsets in terms of who qualifies, which personally I would like to see.
 
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