A lot of people were complaining about the quality of the predicts, and I'm finally done with my semester so I thought I'd do my own.
vs.
Viridian Vivillons (4) vs. Milk Bagged Miltanks (4)
SS:
gorex vs TJ - I believe both players are at a relatively similar level when it comes to Monotype, however I am edging gorex here because I think he had somewhat better games so far. Moreover, Decem support has proven to give him a solid edge in a lot of his games. When the MPL versions of these teams faced, gorex 6-0'd I believe so I trust in Decem's ability to fish against this set of players.
SS: kythr vs
dahli - Peachy is undefeated thus far and is in general a much better and consistent player. He has had some lucky breaks so far admittedly. Kythr has also shown a weak mental in the past, such as throwing multiple end games in MPL, how he reacted to his final mono circuit match, and apparently the aftermath of said match as well. Being easily titled could be very problematic here, as he recently lost in RU Circuit as well and if something happens during the game, peachy is quite talented at getting under an opponents skin. If both are in a good shape tho, this should be a pretty good game.
Bo3: Decem vs
Chaitanya - Seeing Chait as 0-2 is extremely weird seeing that he's basically the undisputed best monotype player and has only once lost more than 2 in a tour, despite consistently making playoffs. I think this bad start will cause him to grind more in the future instead of his generally lax attitude when it comes to his own matches. He will want to work hard not to end up in the same situation as Eien did. Moreover, Chait won their last encounter although that was in multigen bo3 and not solely SS. Only way I see Decem winning is if he manages to cheese with his bizarre builds; although his team choice was pretty terrible last week, since Normal is just not great in the current meta game.
Threat:
ToxaNex vs D2TheW - I was not a huge fan of Nex's team last week nor of his plays, but nonetheless his knowledge of the threat metagame gives him an edge in my opinion. D2TheW has great team building support in the form of Chait & Zap so there isn't many worries about his team being bad. However, his inexperience in regards to playing is a concern as shown by his match week 1; If Vodoom didn't manage to play just as bad, he might have still been banished to the bench to reflect about the pointers provided in Chait's rants.
AAA: The Number Man vs
Zap - Zap did to Lycan what Fissure did to The Number Man.
STAB:
trash vs Vodoom - trash is pretty knowledgeable about Monotype Stabmons and a good player, meanwhile I'm not sure Vodoom even knows the ruleset of this metagame. I can see him getting caught off guard by something and then blaming that on his lost. Glad to see the miltanks are using him as a moving cannon fodder tho, and look forward to seeing him in LC next week.
LC:
Toadow vs Izaya - Izaya asked to never be put in LC again last week and unfortunately finds himself here again. Toadow also simply has an edge in terms of LC knowledge and has performed well thus far.
NatDex: maroon vs
Harpp - The awaited clash between former comanagers. After working together in the last 2 MPLs, this pair went their separate ways and signed up with new assmans. There's even more tension as maroon tends to blame the failure of their last run on Harpp's performance. Moreover, Harpp was ranked below him in the power rankings despite being by far more respected as a player. I expect both sides to be putting in a lot of effort here. Despite maroon doing pretty decently here in his 2 weeks in the tier, and Harpp throwing & somehow getting outsmarted vs Maskun, I am picking Harpp here for just being the better player in general. I trust that he will be very motivated to turn things around and will work hard to smooth out the edges in his play.
vs.
Weaboo Wartortles (2) vs.
Circhester Centiskorchers (6)
SS: Kaguya Lys vs
King Choco - I personally think aya's probably the best player on this team that isn't Feitan, but that isn't necessarily saying much. Choco has been doing pretty decently this tour, and this year in general, tho admittedly he hasn't necessarily played the most competitive opponents. I think he's the more consistent player in general, and generally brings good teams showing decent prep.
SS: martha vs
Shiba - Shiba hasn't played that well in both his games despite winning iirc, but I'll edge him here since I've seen him play SS Monotype more and is generally regarded as a better player. This could go either way tho, just haven't seen anything of martha in this metagame.
Bo3: LuckyPiper vs
Trichotomy - Here we have Piper's 3rd attempt at getting a win he can milk for the next year. In terms of playing there's a significant skill gap here, and Trich has just always shown to be consistent. I could see piper coming out of this with a win with some cheese or some insane fishing, but otherwise this is definitely in trich's favor.
Threat:
taide vs basaninho - While taide's threat support is rather mediocre, an opinion corroborated by some people on the team, their teams are at least decent enough. This can't necessarily be said for the centiskorchers. I really did not like the team they brought this week, it seemed like they were prepping for the wrong threats and greatly misusing Pokemon by giving them bad sets. I'm not sure who is building here, although it sure does look Havens has had his hands in this slot. Threat knowledge is also another detriment here, not only in terms of building but also playing. Basaninho has shown to struggle against some relatively common threat techs that the more experienced players would expect. I have heard he's a pretty good player tho, so if they can fix the knowledge + building they might perform better.
AAA: iLlama vs
Fissure - Llama is returning from a long break, and seeing that he wasn't anything special before that, it is doubtful he does anything now. He's also been consistent in showing lack of playing knowledge when discussing games every week. On the other hand, Fissure has been doing really well and has been impressing everyone every week with what his builds. He's managed to make people interested in Monotype AAA which is a great feat in itself.
STAB: vivalospride vs
Quantum Tesseract - QT has more knowledge when it comes to Monotype Stabmons. Vivalospride is probably the better player in general, but QT generally has better builds which is an important edge in the OMs.
LC:
Crashy vs Eternal Spirit - After losing 2 weeks in a row, Havens' so called "free wins" LC player is now benched which is unfortunate since we can't see the battle of the 20k+ LC slots. Crashy has a lot of knowledge about monotype LC and has been doing well so far so there's no reason to bet against him. Eternal Spirit is definitely the better Pokemon player though, so if he gets a good team from Nailec and is familiar with what things run, he'll manage well.
NatDex: RAP Yogurt vs
Skysolo - I genuinely paused here because I was baffled by this matchup. It seems like 2 weeks is Feitan's tolerance at handling "the whole circus" (his words apparently), and has decided to bench himself. Solo has a very bad historic Monotype performance and this team has greatly struggled in this slot, but he's definitely the better player here; he has made somewhat of a name for himself in other tiers after leaving Monotype.
vs.
Inebriated Incineroars (3) vs.
Tsundere Tsareenas (5)
SS:
MetaRiolu7 vs Wanka - Similar to MPL, Mr7 struggled in the first two weeks and bounced back in the 3rd week. I think he will continue with that momentum and will be more focused after his massive slip up in week 2. Also, I heard wanka is being subbed out? This team doesn't have any too impressive subs iirc so definitely an edge for Mr7 here.
SS: Conflux vs
Bushtush - This is a pretty interesting match. Both players have had rough starts thus far, but I believe Bush has been better and is just generally the better Pokemon player. Conflux can try to capitalize on his superior monotype knowledge, seeing that I don't think Bush has paid much attention to the tier for a long time. However, I don't really think that is a significant enough advantage to have much of an impact.
Bo3: zugubu royale vs
Isza - One of the most interesting games of the week personally. Both players had wins vs very strong players last week and are very self-confident. Zugu has definitely had a strong performance this year in SS Monotype circuit wise, but I'm going with Isza here because I think Isza is a better player and has been doing better in the tournament in terms of SS. Moreover, he's a try hard when it comes to prep which makes me believe he'll be able to identify and take advantage of zugu's patterns.
Threat:
Bouff vs K3ppr - K3ppr surprised everyone week 1 with a really good game despite most ppl not having high expectations. However, he brought some bad teams in the following two weeks imo. Similar to my complaints about other threat teams, there was some misuse of Pokemon such as Swords Dance on Glastier on ice threat. He's also shown some mishaps in terms of playing. On the other hand, Bouff is a good player and is supported by great team building from torkool. Their team has not managed to get a win in Monothreat yet, but they did have some unlucky moments and the players have been a bit too passive for the nature of Monothreat.
AAA: aesf vs
1 True Lycan - It's pretty difficult to ever predict against Lycan general, and that's definitely still the case in AAA Monotype where he has an excellent record like 25-5. He got completely smashed by Zap last week but there wasn't really much he could do in the matchup. aesf has also been doing pretty well in the tour, so I wouldn't count him out at all. I'm not really that into Monotype AAA but I'm looking forward to what both sides will come up with.
STAB: Plas vs
power - I'm a Plas fan but since I don't know much about the OMs I asked for help, and was told that the team choices aren't all that great. From what I've heard, their builds are somewhat lacklustre as they end up neglecting important things. For this reason, I'm giving power the end since team building is super important when it comes to the OMs.
LC:
Confide vs tko - Both have been doing well so far. This decisions mostly just up to personal bias since I think Confide will do really well in this tour and he's just been on fire this year.
NatDex: Jordy vs
Maskun - I never thought I would ever be bolding Maskun in my life. He surprised everyone with his quick thinking vs Harpp last week with his game winning Iron Head on Zard Y play. Admittedly, that win was mainly due to Harpp messing up, but still gotta give him credit for thinking that out. Meanwhile, Jordy has had some trouble making an impact here. However, if he is going to bounce back, vs Maskun is definitely where it's going to happen.
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