Empo vs Tace - Tace you're my man, but Empo is easily one of the top 5 active players right now and has been at a high level for a while. I made a mistake the last time I predicted against him, and I'm not gonna repeat it again. If anyone is gonna pull off an upset against empo, it will be tace between his access to great building support on his snake team and aggressive playstyle that can match empo turn for turn at his best.
le LLiolae vs Twixtry - I'm having a tough time getting a read on this one, considering their very similar levels of experience, but Twix has played more solid to lately imo and I've definitely liked his teams more on top of that, so I think I'll take him to win this game.
Kebab mlml vs Typhlosion48 - Neither has been turning heads so far this tournament outside of Typh's first swiss series, and I think both have brought teams of approximately equal quality, so I think it's fair to say that this is a toss up. Obviously both have had their fair share of missteps late in games, but I've liked the aggression that I've seen from typh more than kebab, and that's why I'm gonna give him a slight edge here.
Updated Kanto vs Sacri' - Kanto hasn't lost a SM OU game in 62 years somehow and Sacri seems to be slumping right now, so I think my pick for this set is just gonna be a case of the hot player catches the more consistent one while he's on a cold streak. Sacri's obviously very good and could take this, I just really feel like Kanto is playing akin to some of his games during that amazing SPL 9 run and don't wanna get burned picking against him right now.
Hayburner vs ABR - The bold would go the other way if this was in LGPE, but unfortunately they're playing dogshit SM OU instead. I'm a lot higher on Hay than most people are, but it's kind of impossible to favor him against ABR with how the two are performing right now. Hay definitely has the willingness to go outside the box in the teambuilder as well as the ability to play big time games in high pressure settings (see WCOP 2018), so he can pull out the upset here, but there's just no reason to pick against ABR against anyone right now.
frisoeva vs Tricking - Tricking is Tricking, but then again friso is insanely hot in OU right now, having ripped off like 3 series in a row as well as winning 2 in a row in snake, so he's got the momentum to be able to pull off the upset, but I'd have to be crazy to actually pick him to win this series given how dominant Tricking has been in SM OU lately.
Dora vs Mob Barley - Both players are similar in terms of being willing to play aggressively and take risks throughout the game as well as favoring similar types of offensive teams, and while Mob has more experience overall, I think Dora's had some gnarly team choices as well as playing really really well for stretches in some games that's gonna allow him to come up with the win here.
(Mimolette vs Liones) vs Charmflash - In spite of some of the names we're seeing in these playoffs, Charmflash is actually my favorite to take the whole thing just because of his really cool unorthodox building style combined with his ability to play his way out of seemingly anything these days. Obviously, Mimo and Liones aren't bad, they're just not near his level right now.
