Indigo Platoon (2) vs (1) Studio Gible
SV OU: Finchinator vs mind gaming - this is very exciting as Finch’s first ever tiebreak game. To quote another user “NE’s been too stacked and his teams have been too shit to TB in other years”. Despite 0 TB gaming, Finch is v experienced in high stress, intense games due to making poffs in many individual tours and his many experiences playing tour games in general. Mind looked unstoppable last SPL, with his worst played game being finals tiebreak vs Kebab, so there might be some nerves or pain from losing that series. I think Finch played better in their game despite the little hiccups at the end, and I’m on the train that if you want the win this bad that you’ll get it
SV PU: MichaelderBeste2 vs S1nn0hC0nfirm3d - the S1n has demonstrated very strong prep in SV PU and his play has also been very strong (obv dude is 9-1). I don’t think Michael’s singles SV gaming has been strong and that he’ll need a lucky break to pull through here. He did get that break vs Gogbound who brought some extreme sheist (wide lens 6-0 tho), and I expect the game to kind of go similarly ie solid anti-meta tech goobs Michael. Lucky + good is a very strong combination for mons players, and both fit it. The S1n is just better in this tier and tournament
SV LC: Scottie vs ninjadog - it’s insane that Scottie has the chance to replicate or surpass the Lavos Run. While it is in DaBaby tier, it’s not insane to predict the dominant, 10-0 player to win against someone who’s been struggling
Orange Islanders (2) vs () Uncharted Terrors
SV OU: Welli0u vs xavgb - the only players I’d predict against stresh are myself, blunder, CTC, Vert, and storm zone. He is absolutely the premier SV OU player currently. He ladders all the time (supposedly) and steals all the best teams and techs he finds there. This is the way to play mons TBH. Well has a bunch of friends and OU support, but I just can’t imagine them being able to outprep stresh. I also can’t imagine many players outplaying stresh, and his consistency and dominance in every tour he’s played is a testament to that. Well is solid, but he has historically struggled in SV OU and stresh is the father of the tier
SV UU: pdt vs Accel - pdt has absolutely dicked me down the last 3 games I’ve played vs him, so I normally wouldn’t predict against him here. However, Accel clutched up big time last week and won pretty easily. He predicted the HO from pdt and prepared accordingly, and idt pdt will HO again here. A player like him who makes aggro doubles and attacks constantly just can’t roll up with HO that is generally formulaic in gameplay. This game is gonna be closer with pdt not using HO, but I gotta give Accel the edge after his performance in the clutch last week
SV DOU: JRL vs Nails - Nails is the best DOU player on smogon of all time, but you can’t beat the doubles tiebreak curse. The only way you defeat the curse is probably if the opponent doubles player is like 1-9 or 2-8 going into the game. In SPL X semis (Croven vs miltank) and Snake something finals (I forget who vs umbry), the teams that picked doubles picked it into a very competent doubles player and lost. JRL also manhandled him last week, so he’s certainly competent. I’m thinking this is a greed pick that will backfire against the Terrors
being a boomer armchair is fun now! Hope to see some fun games; gl to all but especially the Jerk platoon