Late Predicts but better late than never, not commenting on crust gens
Team Raiders (5) vs (6) Wi-fi Wolfpack
SS OU: reiku vs Star - Star's looked pretty solid to start SPL and while reiku has some phenomenal teammate support from Trosko, I'm gonna need more from him before bolding him against the top players in the pool.
SS OU: Trosko vs rozes - Trosko is one of the best players in the pool even if he's gotten off to a slow start and this should be a good chance for him to bounce back against a less tenured OU opponent in rozes.
SS OU: Lusa vs Charmflash - Similarly to Trosko, Charm was ranked very highly going into this tour and is staring down a daunting 0-3 record, but he's against someone that I'm not particularly high on, so he should be able to bounce back here.
SS LC: LilyAC vs HT - Lily's played solidly for the most part, even if her first win was pretty lucky, whereas HT has frankly looked lost at points this season, so I'm gonna favor Lily by a fair bit here.
SM OU: Posho vs Welli0u - I feel like the Raiders would be better served putting Posho in BW OU and juggling dice around since Posho seems really uncomfortable in SM. On the other hand, Well has an uncanny ability to farm people with insane consistency, so I don't really see his 9 game winning streak being stopped until he runs into the higher end of the pool
ORAS OU: Lycans vs Sjneider - Lycans hasn't really lived up to his price tag so far this SPL whereas Sjneider played a great game and overcame a shit matchup in week 1 and only narrowly lost to Luigi last week, so I'm going to favor neider here.
BW OU: dice vs Pearl - Pearl's been solid so far, but I strongly believe that dice is tied with SW for being the best BW player in the pool. He returned to form last week after the unfortunate week 1 and I expect him to build up some momentum and rattle off several wins in a row here.
DPP OU: ToF vs BIHI - BIHI's teamchoices have been fairly on point and he's played solid for the most part. ToF has also been quite good, getting consecutive wins against quality opponents, and he seems to be bringing strong teams so I'm gonna favor the veteran here.
ADV OU: pasy_g vs BKC
GSC OU: Earthworm vs sulcata
RBY OU: MetalGro$$ vs Sceptross
Dragonspiral Tyrants (7) vs (4) Cryonicles
SS OU: Christo vs Leftiez - Leftiez didn't look great in either of his opening SM games, whereas Christo has looked a bit more solid by comparison. It's very possible that the toupip is much more comfortable in SS than SM so that's something to look out for here.
SS OU: TDK vs Sacri' - Both have looked great so far, so this is a game I'm looking forward to watching. It's really hard to rule clearly one way or the other, but I personally favor TDK in this setting. He's going to be constantly pushing the envelope with innovation and new ideas and I think he's going to be able to bring out something Sacri won't expect here that's gonna give him the edge he needs to win.
SS OU: Nat vs Eo Ut Mortus - Nat's had an uninspiring first couple weeks whereas Eo has used his fetish for Trick Clefable to the fullest against a ton of people lately, going far in the invitational tournament, and he's coming off of a pretty strong win against soulgazer. I feel like Eo is gonna use this game as a springboard to go on a run and put up a great record here.
SS LC: Luthier vs ggggd - Highlight matchup here, two of the best LCers at it right now going head to head. Pablo was ranked number 1 in the PR while Luthier is coming off of a really nonsensical misclick in his win last week. I feel like Luthier's ability to make aggressive reads and big plays is the best of anyone in this pool even if some people critique his long term thought process, so I'm gonna give him a nice edge here.
SM OU: blunder vs Updated Kanto - Kanto is really great at SM, with breakers like Kart and Maw aiding his aggressive playstyle, but blunder's been on a tear in SM dating back to last SPL and I don't see Kanto stopping him here.
ORAS OU: CrashinBoomBang vs Garay oak - CBB is the best ORAS player in this pool period.
BW OU: John W vs Finchinator - Was actually tempted to go with John W to upset Finch here, but the latter has just been so solid over the years that it's really difficult to pick a rookie against him, even if he's a promising young stud.
DPP OU: The Grand Babido vs shawyu 1313 - I feel like Bab's comfort area in DPP is abusable for a talented builder like Osgoode, who's obviously going to be giving shawyu teams. Bab's obviously the more solid player, but I feel like shawyu is solid enough to pilot a strong matchup if he doesn't let nerves affect him too much.
ADV OU: Gilbert arenas vs z0mOG
GSC OU: gorgie vs Mr.E
RBY OU: Heroic Troller vs HML am - Already happened but it's troller comeon lol
Alpha Ruiners (4) vs (7) Congregation of the Classiest
SS OU: FLCL vs suapah - I guess this is a bit of an upset predict? Eric's admittedly better at SM OU than he is at SS, but he's still a great teambuilder and a smart player who can take advantage of the patterns that FLCL tends to fall into. Definitely looking forward to the canadian clash this week.
SS OU: Twixtry vs Insult - Twix is solid and all but come on Insult's literally been the best SS OU player in SPL besides maybe john and I don't expect him to slow down things here at all.
SS OU: Empo vs blarghlfarghl - Blargh's been putting up some wins lately and everything but I'm sure Empo's watched Derek play Pokemon enough to not fall for his infamous "midgrounds".
SS LC: jake vs Serene Grace - Normally I'd pick jake to win this game coming off of recent success, but he seems to have a crippling weakness to handsome brown men, and Serene easily falls under this category.
SM OU: Gondra vs Relous - Tough game to call, I'm not particularly high on either but Relous has the most impressive recent body of work and seems to be more well versed in the tier, so I'm gonna pick him to win a tight game here.
ORAS OU: xImRaptor vs Persephone - Pers is great at prepping in this gen as evidenced by the insane MU that he pulled last week, but Raptor strikes me as someone that's really hard to pin down, so I feel like Pers is going to put himself in a pretty unfavorable position from preview.
BW OU: Caetano93 vs Raiza - Raiza is definitely more recently accomplished and is more highly regarded in the context of BW OU. Regardless I favor Caetano's ingenuity as a teambuilder against a more orthodox player like Raiza that a lot of people have labeled a "Finch clone" even if that description doesn't necessarily encapsulate his abilites.
DPP OU: Hyogafodex vs Tamahome - Game already happened but let's be honest, most people predicted tama here.
ADV OU: Alexander. vs Teclis
GSC OU: FriendOfMrGolem120 vs KratosMana
RBY OU: ErPeris vs Amaranth
Indie Scooters (5) vs (6) Circus Maximus Tigers
SS OU: Lopunny Kicks vs le LLiolae - Lio's definitely got some skills, but Punny has been incredibly consistent for way too many tours in a row for me to pick against him here.
SS OU: talah vs robjr - You know the drill vros bold talah's opp every week
SS OU: Jayde vs Tace - Jayde's started off in an unfortunate slump and while I think he's really solid and should break out of it soon, things aren't getting any easier for him. Tace is an incredibly dedicated player with consistently prudent and intelligent prep and I think his solid teamchoice in conjunction with his aggressive playing will allow him to drop Jayde to 0-3 here.
SS LC: tazz vs Osh - tazz is insanely hyped by the LC community as a whole, but Osh seems like a much more solid player to me in his recent tournament performances, so I'm gonna have to give him an edge here.
SM OU: ZoroDark vs Eternal Spirit - Two nearly identical players matching up here, with neither exactly having a roaring start to the season. I can't see Gama going 0-3 here and regardless of all the complaints he has about SS OU, I've still gotta favor him here and hope to see him return to form soon.
ORAS OU: Quaze vs Luigi - Luigi is admittedly been better than preseason expectations would lead one to expect, but his playstyle skewing pretty heavily towards offense is a tendency that I think Quaze is going to be able to exploit with his unique teambuilding antics this week.
BW OU: zf vs Steve Angello - I cannot recall ever having seen Steve Angello play a BW OU match in my life, so I'm gonna favor the significantly more experienced zf here.
DPP OU: Honor vs Vay - I feel like Honor's DPP teams are fairly flawed for the most part and the DPP pool has really been taking advantage of that this SPL thus far. Vay's no stranger to preparing for his opponents and I expect him to bring a solid team and notch a solid win over Honor here.
ADV OU: CyberOdin vs dekzeh
GSC OU: Fear vs McMeghan
RBY OU: Bedschibaer vs Kaz