So essentially this is the moment I've been looking forward to most for this season. Div A playoffs are a showcase of the top players from SSCam's highest quality and most well attended season. Honestly I don't see any bad matchups and advancing even one round here will be a good showing. Final 4 gets you an invite into SSCam's prize tourney where 100 dollars will be on the line. Bottom half preds were done by myself (Jon, Drunk_Canuck), Cam (legend.skillz) makes an appearance predicting the top match only and Trav (__Trav__) took care of the last 3. Good luck to all.
Rd 1 Playoff Matchups
#1 mr_camtasia vs #16 xsoubanhx - This will be a great match to watch..im looking forward to this one. Pita is a real good player and he's fun to watch. He's got a solid run game and can safety with the best of them. If he wins this match I can see him going far in this but he's got one tough cookie in round 1. Chris is just amazing...I personally idolize this guy. One of the best runners to have played this game. I think this match will be close because I think Pita will be prepared and come in and play some great ypool. Just think Chris will be too much . Vgl guys, have fun.
7-5 Chris Result - 8-6 Chris
#8 Drunk_Canuck vs #9 legend.skillz - Both are good players here with different primary strategies. Jon's a bit smarter, less of a risk taker where Cameron's going to rely on running more than anything. So what will make or break this match is basically whether Cameron is finishing runs, or leaving easy clean-ups for Jon. Jon can run as well don't get me wrong, but I expect he'll play it slow here and let Cameron try and hang himself with unfinished runs. So really what I expect to happen here is Cameron will probably lose a few games to that, but he's not going to get down to 2-3 balls every time and miss or screw up a leave. It'll usually be with him having 4-5 balls left instead of 2 which is why this should be a close set. My deciding factor is that the number of tables he finishes will be greater than the number of open ones he leaves (2-3 balls left).
7-5 Cameron Result - 7-2 Jon
#4 black_stallion009 vs #13 safdarbandali - What an intriguing matchup. Not a big difference in these two guys' games IMO. As in they play similar, i do think Irfan is the more skilled of the two, and he did beat Ant in groups and somehow took top spot in their group even though him and Ant shared IDENTICAL stats haha. Saf's never really had much luck in cam comps though so I dunno what to say there. Irfan on the otherhand won SS Cam a couple seasons ago. But still I see this as one of those sets though where anythings possible, and going into this match I have to say Irfan already has a slight advantage and any other advantages added is a bonus for him. With Saf, it puts the set closer, with a small, but possible steal from Irfan.
7-4 Irfan Result - 7-3 Safdar
#5 AlmightyWarrior vs #12 hp_king22 - I don't really even watch Sid play, I basically judge him from the wins or losses in his groups. And the funny thing about those is, this season of SS Cam he beat the top 3 players in his group (excluding himself) then lost to the worst two. So i really don't understand that at all. As far as this Don guy goes, he says he's good. Fair enough, but the only person to really back that up was Kenny, and i kinda took it sarcastically because com on, Kenny? he deson't give anyone credit =)). Judging by your stats I wasn't too impressed, mainly because you barely beat Shane and Mina. I had thought you had beaten Derrick, and I was writing that off as Derrick being wounded, when I found out that you took over TJ's stats and the only sets that are yours are Shane/Mina. So hell you went undefeated in your group! But hey you could be really good, but the only way you're going to win here is if Sid plays EXTREMELY bad. And lately he's been pretty consistant so I don't see it.
7-4 Sid Result - 7-3 Sid
#2 the_pool_professor vs #15 pas_killa - In this matchup we have last season's champ Kenny vs an old school well known player in Pas. Pas barely squeaked into the playoffs possibly because of the inactive group but now that he's in there you can't expect him to be an easy out. I haven't really seen Pas on form much lately but he still knows how to play the game. This is a re-match from the group stage where Kenny romped 9-0. As long as Kenny takes this set seriously then he shouldn't have too much trouble because of his more solid all around game. Pas did a great job qualifying for knockout stage but his run this season ends here.
7-3 Kenny Result - 7-4 Pascal
#7 aka_sicc vs #10 A_D_A_M__ - Here is a really interesting round one matchup. Going into the season Ant was one of the top favourites to win the whole competition but coming second place in his group didn't help out his seeding at all. That makes round one slightly tougher for him. While I'd still say Ant is a pretty big favourite in this matchup he is playing against a player who can definitely compete in this set. If Adam gets on a roll he can run with anyone and has the table vision to play smart shots and slow things down when necessary. When Ant is on his game he tends to not let his opponents shoot very often. Adam will have to minimize the mistakes and try to keep up and maybe pull it out in the end. Ant won't kill Adam but it should be a comfortable win.
7-4 Ant Result - 7-3 Ant
#3 stun.shot vs #14 pr0.g0dly - Another good matchup here with Nick vs Mina. Normally I would say there isn't much to choose between either of these two players. They can both hit great shots to get out of sticky situations, have good ball control and they're not afraid to play in safety games. This is a rematch from the group stage where Nick pulled out a come from behind victory 5-4 to help him get this great seed. This should be a really close set but there's no way I can bet against Nick coming off arguably his best group stage in any cam comp. He's a former winner of the comp and looks serious to try to make a run against this tough field. Mina will push him but Nick advances.
7-5 Nick Result - 10-8 Mina
#6 __Trav__ vs #11 toyboy2die4u - Trav is going to be looking to avenge his loss in last season's playoffs after he went out in his first set after earning the #1 overall seed. This bracket is definitely a lot tougher and filled with sharks. Round one won't be easy as Kazi stands in his way to move into the quarter-finals. Trav seems to be more consistent but both players have put up good results in top cam comps. These playoffs are filled with all around players and these two are no exception to that rule. Like most of these sets it'll come down to which player keeps the silly mistakes under control. Kazi has the skill to win this set even if Trav plays great but I think he's a little more prone to giving away easy games with unfinished runs. Should be a great set to watch.
7-5 Trav Result - 7-3 Trav
Rd 2 Matchups
#1 mr_camtasia vs #8 leafed_leafs - Very interesting Round 1 results for both players. Kinda the opposite of what I really expected. Chris is ruthless, one of the best runners you'll see and he's going to play the same no matter what the score is. Jon can definitely hold his own, he could upset Chris if he played really well. They faced off in groups during the season with Chris taking the W, so they both have recent experience playing each other. Should be a tight match, but probably about the same outcome as groups unless some good things happen for Jon.
7-5 Chris Result - 7-5 Chris
#13 safdarbandali vs #5 AlmightyWarrior -
no pred Result - 7-3 Sid
#15 pas_killa vs #7 aka_sicc - Ok so this definitely looks like the mismatch of the secound round with Pascal vs Ant. Pascal was pretty much lucky to qualify for the playoffs but then showed he belonged with a great 7-4 win vs Kenny. Ant qualified with a pretty low seed but I'd say he's getting a pretty sweet draw here after taking out Adam in the first round. I don't see anyone now getting in Ant's way on the way to the finals in this competition as the top seeds on this half of bracket are dropping. The win against Pas isn't a guarantee I know that Pascal has beaten Ant before in set play and he definitely won't be initimidated by any of Ant's antics. I think Ant wins big but don't count Pas out completely.
7-3 Ant Result - 7-1 Ant
#14 pr0.g0dly vs #6 __Trav__ - Mina and Trav will both go into this matchup thinking they've got a great chance at advancing to semi-finals and a prize tourney entry. Trav definitely had the much stronger season as evidenced by his #6 overall seed in this bracket. On the other side Mina just barely squeaked into playoffs and took out a defending champ in Nick. Neither player will be intimidated in this matchup by any style as they're both experienced in many other comps. The edge will go to the guy who makes the least mistakes and I think that's going to be Trav in this matchup. Should go down to the wire.
7-5 Trav Result - 8-6 Trav
Rd 3 Matchups
#1 mr_camtasia vs #5 AlmightyWarrior - Winner here will advance on to the upper half of the SS Cam Division A Playoffs bracket. And really either player is capable of winning here.. capable of winning this match or winning this entire season of competition. Chris is a great runner, but tends to give up big leads. With a Rt9, if you give someone an inch well.. they're gonna come back with momentum and steal the set. I've never really watched Sid play, but hey the guy won 8brcam.. gotta be doin something right aye? I'm gonna say though that Chris gets up early here 3-1ish and maintains a +1-2 lead throughout the set and it remains steady like that for awhile, both of them trading runs and cleanups. So really it's all on Sid in the end, because Chris has a poor reputation late in sets.
9-7 Chris Result - 9-7 Chris
#7 aka_sicc vs #6 __Trav__ - Ok don't sweat it guys you will have a prediction before you play. The second semi-final matchup puts two of the big names in the tournament against each other as you might expect. Trav has improved on his upset loss in round 2 from the previous season to make it this far. Ant is in his first SSCam but no one should be surprised that he's made it this far with ease too I might add. This should be Ant's biggest challenge up until now but I honestly think he's on another level. Trav can definitely hang with Ant if he's on his game but when Ant is on his game there aren't too many people who have a chance. I always like to root against Ant because he's like the evil empire (NYY) but his selection of shots and execution seem as if they're on a 200 million dollar payroll. If you didn't understand that reference I'm just saying I can't pick against Ant in this matchup.
9-6 Ant Result - 9-2 Ant
Finals
#1 mr_camtasia vs #7 aka_sicc - Ok so we're finally at the finals of div A. The best of the best. Once again no surprise here... many could have picked these two out as the best two players in the field from the start of the group stage. Ant wasn't challenged at all on the way to the finals here while Chris was challenged in close sets every round. I wouldn't really read too much into that as no one will be running away with this set. This is the first round for either player where I can say they've met their match. Both players are great with english and have great table vision, able to hit tricky banks, combos just about anything you've ever seen in tight situations. Will definitely come down to who is executing their shots and finishing runs (like any set) but these are two of the best around and I'd recommend watching this one if you want to see some top level pool. Ant wins too many comps so I'm going to pick Chris as the winner in this one because personally it's nice to see Ant lose.
10-8 Chris
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