Chazm vs
ItsChew. - Chazm would normally be my pick because of her extremely solid fundamentals + ability to build. She's a fairly innovative player who knows her way around a game, and I feel like her game sense overall is stronger than that of Chew. That being said, she made the mistake of predicting herself to win in advance, and that always results in a loss. As a result, Chew takes this provided he doesn't use Fire Blast. Fortunately for him, he's unlikely to make this mistake because Blue Flare exists =)
DuGuo vs
damflame 3 - DuGuo very aggressively cheered hybone on in my MnM series against them, and I found that super cute. That being said, that leads me to believe that DuGuo is similar to an anime character, and as far as I know, the French don't really watch anime much (except for Siamato) so DuGuo might as well not exist to damflame. Damflame also has reasonable fundamentals and access to a community of very strong players, all of whom are more than capable of building a solid team. It's all this which leads me to think he'll take this series, but DuGuo is a fairly unknown quantity and they're very good from what I've seen, so this could go either way.
quojova vs TectonicDestroyer - I feel as if quojova is the best BH player in the actual game and the second-best BH player overall at this point in time. A combination of extremely strong fundamentals, unparalleled game sense, and fairly innovative building leads him to be a fearsome opponent to have. TD's alright, he knows his way around a game enough, but in BH he doesn't really strike me as something super special by virtue of the tier requiring some level of prior knowledge to consistently be successful in. I wouldn't write Tect out, but with how strong quojova is I'll be incredibly impressed if Tect manages to take this one.
MAMP vs XxSevagxX - If Sevag manages to win this one in the builder, then he definitely has the skills to pilot the game to victory. It's not a huge order, either, considering he's the
Isaiah of BH in that he somehow manages to have every BH team on this website. He's definitely able to outprep MAMP efficiently, and he has the building skills to back it up. That being said, I think his playing is less strong than MAMP's, and prep can be a bit of a gamble. I feel like MAMP in the actual game is also a lot more powerful than Sevag, and I think he'd be able to outplay an even matchup if necessary. Both of these players are fairly solid at capitalizing on their opponent's mistakes but are susceptible enough to making their own that I feel uncomfortable bolding one over the other, and I'd bold the vs sign if I could. Probably the series I'm looking forward to the second most. That being said, I'm not a coward, so I'll bold MAMP because Sevag pestered me on TWO DAYS (!?) to make these predicts.
cityscapes vs a loser - I said earlier above that quojova was the second best BH player at the moment, but I have to give the medal for the best BH player atm to Erin. While I don't feel like she's as strong in the actual game as quojova is, she's not far behind at all and this comes with her also being one of the best builders in the metagame. Where she truly shines, though, is her ability to effectively outprep, while her opponent is generally left guessing what she's going to use as she's fairly an unknown quantity. In addition to this, she manages to very consistently output teams that pair incredibly well with her playstyle and that she's very comfortable with. Loser, on the other hand, is an extremely solid player in his own right, and he definitely has the skills to pilot this bo3. I also think that Erin is probably a better matchup for him than any of the other BH players (minus quojova) in this bracket because while I think Erin's probably the best BH player atm, I also think that overall, she doesn't really enjoy using structures that are designed to drag out the game, which I feel is loser's weakness. Definitely the highlight game of this round, really sad I can't watch it live.
All of the matchups this week look super hype :) Good luck to everyone! If I bolded against you just prove me wrong
Welcome to the Balanced Hackmons Open!
