Group A
Ah div B lots to write about as half the sets in the competition were played in the first week. Group A had a few players with lots to prove including Kerry, Rich and Dorie. So far Dorie started out to 3 losses with no wins and Kerry is on a 2-2 record needing a win to move on. Rich is surprisingly in the best spot of those 3 with 2-1 record needing only another win out of his two remaining sets. Trey as expected dominated this group with a 5-0 record winning over 75% of his games. Pat was a pretty big surprise winning 3 of his sets and putting himself into the playoff picture. With two spots already sealed up this group will be hoping to maybe have a wildcard spot to fit everyone in.
Two key sets to watch:
G_O_D99 vs xl_banqueen_lx - Well two players with lots to prove. Rich trying to make his first sscam playoffs in a while while Kerry doesn't want to miss her first one in a while. Kerry lost a set vs Pat which makes this a must win situation for her to advance in the playoffs. She needs at least 3 wins to crack the top 3 or get a wild-card so feel the desperation! I think Kerry knows that she needs this one more and will probably show the same class she's shown in previous seasons to move on.
G_O_D99 vs doriebarnes84 - Well look at that Rich has been featured in his second key set. He seems to control the fate of a couple people in this group. While Dorie has pretty much taken herself out of the running for her own playoff spot she has a chance to play spoiler here to Rich. These two have met in a previous season with Dorie taking the result. Rich should know that he really needs to win this set and I think he might be able to do that by taking advantage of Dorie's low confidence level at this point.
Group B
Group B is the opposite of A as everything is still wide open. DJ and Krazy were seen as the favourites at the start and they both haven't done much to disprove that. DJ did beat Krazy in their set to get the inside track for 1st place in the group while Krazy did win his other game to be sitting at 1-1. The surprise in this set is that the other win belongs to Will who was able to upset DJ in their set. New member in the group Prakash will be doing his best to disrupt things while Maria and Chrissie are still alive with only one set played each.
Two key sets to watch:
binder.william vs _White_Rabbit - Will has done most of his heavy lifting already getting his sets with Krazy and DJ out of the way early and should be happy splitting those sets. One of his remaining tests will come against Chrissie. Chrissie so far has a loss to DJ but is by no means out of the race. A win for her against Will would go a long way towards getting her back in the playoff hunt. Will has been impressive but we'll see just how far he'll go based on how he does here.
ActiveKC vs PxYxRxO - This might appear to be a bit of a mismatch on paper but DJ has been caught off guard once already in these group stages. Prakash really needs to return to his form of long long ago to have much of a chance in this set but if he were able to win it he could have some real playoff aspirations too. This set is pretty important for DJ because he needs the win to claim the group and keep a top seed going into the playoffs.
Group C
Another group where lots has happened so far but only one place is set in stone. Eddie in back to back seasons now has raced out to a 5-0 group stage with more than a 70 win %. Harmony and Rahul each have impressive wins against Sterlo and Rubi to have 2-1 records. Moon has taken herself out of playoff race with an 0-4 record while Sterlo is sitting at slim odds with 1-3. Snow is the player in the group who can make a big difference still with 4 sets to play, he'll need some impressive wins though.
Two key sets to watch:
TheGreatOne41 vs harmony.fitzgerald - Ok well this one is pretty obvious with both players sitting at 2-1, the winner of this set will be going on to the playoffs. Before the competition started I would have said Harmony was the favourite in this matchup but Rahul has surprised me with two impressive victories, maybe he's getting a little better at pool. I think Harmony is a bit tougher to play against and she should come out on top here but watch out for Rahul.
TheGreatOne41 vs snowmanbody - Well I'm assuming this becomes the next key match if Harmony beats Rahul but this should still be important either way. Rahul will be either looking for his 3rd or 4th win in the group to solidify his playoffs hopes while Snow is going to be looking to win some sets to get his name in the hat. Snow's biggest hurdle will be actually playing this set but if they actually do get a chance to matchup it should be a close one.
Group D
Group D was thought to be a fairly wide open group with no real dominating forces and that's how it appears to be playing out so far with lots of sets left to play. The group is currently being led by Jason and Justin who are 4-0 and 2-0 respectively. Musti and Naveen are still sitting in pretty good shape with 1-1 records while John and Dawn are pretty much on the outside looking in. Jason is looking for his first 5-0 in the competition which would earn him one of the top seeds going into the playoffs but he's still got that last set to play.
Two key sets to watch:
PSYCHOJASON vs ultimate_p00l_perfecti0n - Well this one is pretty obvious as a highlighted set. Both player appear to be on their way to playoff positions quite comfortably with no losses between the two of them so far. One player will have to lose though if these two do play and the winner will have a key advantage to win this group outright. Justin still has 2 other sets to win to be able to pull off a 5-0 record but the winner here has a great chance to join that elite perfect group.
ultimate_p00l_perfecti0n vs n0_0b - Justin has taken over second place in this group maybe a little by surprise but he hasn't played the player who was predicted to come in second which is Musti. Musti doesn't need this win to make the playoffs but it will definitely give him a little breathing room. Justin's wins so far haven't really come against any of the contenders in this group so will have to take his results with a grain of salt. We'll see how good he really is in these two sets.
Group E
Here we have a group that hasn't gotten the memo that the season has started with only 4 sets having been played so far. Luckily we've added Graeme into the mix to hopefully help get some more sets played. We have a 4-way tie for first place at this point with all 4 sitting on 3 points and only one win. Shelle and Niks are in the best positions only barely because they have no losses. Kevin has one loss and Amy has two but neither play is out by any means. One of the favourites in the group, Jenni has only played one set which was a loss but by no means is she out of the race. She should be a favourite in every set left except maybe against Kevin. In the end I think the playoff spots will be fought for by Shelle, Jenni, Niks, Kevin.
Two key sets to watch:
dark_tranquillity_666_l_l vs SuGaRBa8y - These were the two predicted top finishers in this group and they both still have a chance to finish up there in the standings. Jenni normally jumps out to pretty quick starts in this competition so hopefully the 0-1 record isn't too worrying. Kevin is a player who I'm still not 100% sure about. He has played really well and sometimes doesn't I guess. If Kevin stays patient in this set and uses his head I think he can win but Jenni also has the ability to run people off the table.
lndiangangsta vs shelle4461 - Well technically at this point both of these players are tied leading the group. Niks and Shelle were both playoff players in the last competition so get ready for some decent pool between the two of them here. Niks is probably more likely to be higher up in the group so this set is probably a little more important for Shelle to win. It should be a pretty close matchup probably ending in a 5-4 score either way but the set will be key for the winner's playoff hopes.
Group F
Here we have a group where every single set was played except for one... well and all of Stevie's sets too. The predictions has Stevie and Sacha as the top players in this group and so far Sacha has been there and Stevie has been replaced by Jerry. Jerry is your new top contender despite the fact that he hasn't been seen in sets before so good luck. Joredon and Drew are both sitting at 2-2 records and are looking for another win to try to get in while Nigel and Bubba are going to square off to try to join that 2-2 club. Could be an exciting finish pretty much all determined by Jerry's sets.
Two key sets to watch:
lawbubba vs en_dk - So far the competition hasn't been all that great for either player as they've lost sets to a couple of the new guys in the lg, Joredon and Drew but there's still time to make amends. The winner of this set will still have a chance to compete for the playoffs while the other will surely be eliminated in this group stage. Nigel definitely has shown in the past that he's got what it takes to be a playoff contender so I think he should put himself in position to even up his record and go for that 3rd win.
downurazz vs joredon - Before this competition started I was pretty sure that Joredon was a nobody who could do nothing but he's definitely proved that wrong. Sitting at 2-2 with wins against Sacha and Nigel isn't a bad result. Jerry is making his cam comp debut here and it should be interesting. Never really seen him play on cam but he's got a pretty strong run game and is a pretty tough player to play against in tournaments. This set should be more important to Joredon for a playoff spot but Jerry has 5 sets left to play so we'll see how it plays out.
NEW GROUP
GROUP G
oh.alix - Alix is a player that I don't really know too much about. What I do know however is that she does have quite a bit of interlg experience which means she's definitely no stranger to playing against good players. The first attempt at cam comps might not go exceedingly well but I think she definitely has the capability to win one or two sets in this group.
my_hillybilly_sbc - Well I managed to convince Jay to play in sscam again and this is the first time he's been in since it's been split in div A and div B. While I always thought Jay would develop into a div A player he definitely will be a contender in div B. Jay has a very good run game and can finish tables just as well as almost anyone on this side of the competition. No stranger at all to high quality pool and should be the top player in this group.
mvp_raven - Brice has finally managed to get eligible to play in the competition and has landed in not too bad of a group for him. Brice has just as much cam comp experience as anyone in this division but it hasn't all been good for him. He is a playoff calibre player in 8brcam's div B though so he has a pretty good chance to pull off the same standing here.
run.legend - Derek is another player who I don't know much about. The story on him is that he showed up in the league one day... played his 50 games to get eligible and no one has seen him since. Well not sure if that's really true but I haven't seen him. He did a pretty good job getting his trnys in and won a few of them. Obviously the quality of play in a set will be much higher than any given tournament so we'll see how he stacks up in best of 9 situations. This group might present some challenges but I think he should move on.
REAPING - Mikey is in the competition for the first time and has somewhat lucked out by being drawn into a fairly easy group here. He's definitely no stranger to top competition and should be able to at least keep most of the sets close in this group. The one criticism I have is that there isn't really one thing that Mikey does really well in order to get wins. He'll have to scratch and claw and have a few bounces go his way to get a playoff spot.
MrsBoogie - Last but not least we have Jenna. Well ok she might end up finishing in last place but she's still pretty cool! Jenna has played in sscam before so she won't be caught off guard by the skill of the players involved in this group. It has been a while since the last time she played sets so it is possible that her game has improved enough to be a contender in this group. She'll probably win 1 set here but it wouldn't be totally surprising to see her win 2.
Pecking Order - 1.Jay 2.Derek 3.Brice 4.Alix 5.Mikey 6.Jenna
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