This season is sort of a milestone, being the first year that we've done 5 seasons, and that's thanks to the great support that's been received, so thanks to everyone for once again being part of the competition.
Remember to stay active in the league to remain eligible for the competition.
Group A
pro.ch0ker - Where has Nish been lately? I know that he's around and he still plays often enough but where are the results. At one point Nish looked like he was on his way up, riding a pretty patient safety game that could make most opponents uncomfortable. He proved in the first two seasons of the year that he still has it, winning div B and going on to qualify for div A's playoffs in the next season. The last two seasons haven't been as good with tougher competition for Nish. Last season wasn't a total waste despite the lack of playoffs, he picked up two good wins in the group stage and just barely missed out. He's once again been handed a tricky group where he fits somewhere in the middle to bottom portion. Nish can keep up with some of the guys here, but he'll need at least one upset to get enough points for the playoffs.
spc_shogun - Welcoming Brian back for a second attempt at the sscam group stage. Last season Brian had a fairly shaky time, finishing with a 2-3 record and only was able to advance because his group wasn't very active. Previous to that season we'd seen Brian have a huge amount of success with winning an MCC title this year and an impressive run in 8brcam. Definitely has the talent to keep up with just about anyone despite what seems to be a lack of consistency. Brian might have to deal with a little bit of rust as he had been off for a bit but he should be one of the top 3 in this group.
just_a_martyr - Seems like it's been a while since JT has had a good result. They used to be quite common in this competition as he has been able to put together some of the more impressive group stages in past seasons. Those past seasons happened quite a while ago and maybe the level of play just caught up to him. This group might not be overwhelming in talent but it's definitely still respectable top to bottom. If we see the old JT who is sharp and finishing eye popping runs then he has a chance to slide in but if we see the inconsistent JT that seems to be currently plaguing him then it might be a 3rd consecutive season outside the playoffs.
l3_lvl_x - A last second addition to the field also happens to be a former finalist in the competition. It's good to lead off with that intro because it's important to recognize past achievements. Not that there's too much bad to say about David's game, just that a run like that is probably not going to happen again until he takes another step forward with his shot-making. David has pretty good table vision and understands how to play an all around game. Sometimes his downfall can be taking a few too many risks and going for low % shots/runs. Although he hasn't played in a while he's not too far removed from winning a strong 8brcam div B title and other than last season he's been a fixture in the postseason in this competition. Will need to come up with some good sets to advance here.
sykology - Brent had an amazing opportunity in last season's playoffs when he was the heavy favourite in his quarter-final round against Dan but he didn't bring his best game and ended up losing that set by a fair margin. This season looks like another good opportunity as Brent is one of the early favourites to win the whole competition with the field not being quite as deep. Should be a pretty interesting group stage for Brent as he's coming off a shaky one from last season where he only had 3 wins. He's definitely in the top 2 in talent among these players but he'll need to show it to grab a high seed for the playoffs. Even if he struggles by his standards.. top 3 should be a guarantee.
poolist - How many predictions have been wasted on this guy? I got to double digits and decided to stop counting. Maybe exaggerating a little bit but still there's been a lot of interesting facts ruined. Derrick is one of the better players to have never made it into an sscam playoffs. He's one of the better shooters around and makes a lot of tricky shots look very simple. Like many players his head can get a little too big at times which leads him into near impossible shots that can cost games. The problem is that sometimes Derrick will get in the habit of pulling off those impossible shots with his great control. I've never really seen Derrick playing badly so if he does manage to play some of his sets, he'll probably grab one of those top 3 sots.
Pecking Order - 1.Brent 2.Brian 3.Derrick 4.David 5.Nish 6.JT
Group B (Ben)
adambuddy - Adam is a solid player, who prefers to run than play slow games that involve a lot of snookering. He usually makes playoffs in all cam competitions and competes well. I see Adam doing well in this group and making playoffs, and if he can upset Chris, then he possibly could take first place in this group.
OG_Ghetto_Superstar - Over the years Shane has been one of those cocky loud mouths in yahoo pool. He's not the greatest at no means. However, the past 6 months or so he has improved his game a little bit to where he can be in more races now and compete. He prefers to try and run anything, even if he has to bang to clear open his balls. However, this style of play usually leads to misfortunes before getting to the 8 ball in each game. I see Shane battling it out with Steven for 5th place.
mr_camtasia - One of the best players at yahoo pool. Chris is extremely talented at running, and positioning the cue ball where it needs to be to finish out runs. In addition to his running, Chris can play snooker when he needs to, but usually goes for the run and usually succeeds. I see Chris winning this group and doing well again in the playoffs.
l0osteekyo0l - I have not seen Steven play a lot of games, but from what I have seen he is a solid player who on most chances will try to run the table, and settles for snooker only when he needs to. Overall, he should be able to win a few matches, but I think he falls just short of the playoffs.
haters - Ryan is a good player on both sides of the game. He can run and snooker when he needs to and compete very well. The only thing is he sometimes messes up on shots he should nail and then these games start to add up on the loss side. If he can lower his mess ups he will be good and finish somewhere in the middle of this group.
BrewersWin - Nick is a good group player who can snooker and run well. He usually plays every set tough, win or lose and usually makes playoffs before losing after the second round or so. I see Nick doing well in this group and finishing in the top half of this group.
Pecking Order - 1.Chris 2.Adam 3.Nick 4.Ryan 5.Steven 6.Shane
Group C (Ben)
nhanxx - Now that Nhan has been back recently he has maintained a fair overall game on offense and defense. He sometimes goes for the run and messes up, but he is not a bad player at all. I think Nhan will have his hands full in this group and finish towards the bottom, but dont be surprise to see him upset anyone in this group.
_MrZero_ - Have not seen Jammy at all lately, and from what I remember he was half way decent. I'm not sure if he has his complete rhythm back, since I never see him anywhere but he will give opponents a scare in most sets and win a few I think.
x_i_am_me_x - Alex is a solid player. Typically a great runner who does not mess up his runs too often. He can snooker too but prefers to go for run if he sees an opening. I think Alex will fare well in this group and battle for a playoff spot and get it.
l1_stephen_1 - Stephen is a really good runner when he is well focused. Anytime he breaks there is a good chance he will run it. In addition, he has a solid snooker game when called upon and this should help him finish in the top half of the group.
sicc.stoned - Derek, the former divsion B champ. I heard he is a solid player. I have not really seen for myself his style of game, so I cannot comment much about him and only will predict that he will have a tough time getting in the playoffs with Alex, Stephen, and Jon. So maybe a slim chance at wildcard.
Drunk_Canuck - The runner up from last season in Division A, Jon is a skilled runner and snooker player. He plays his strategy well on what he plans to do to throw off his opponent. He always does well in groups and playoffs, and will finish in the top half of this group.
Pecking Order - 1.Jon 2.Stephen 3.Alex 4.Derek 5.Nhan 6.Jammy
Group D
X_STRIKE_X - Andy told me he hadn't played in weeks so I told him to quit complaining! Well not really but the thought crossed my mind. Andy isn't really the kind of player that I see being affected by rust as much as other players. So this probably won't be an 0-6 season for Andy as he jokingly predicted earlier. Andy has produced a couple very impressive group stages the last couple seasons, taking on all challengers and rising to the top of the pile both times. Despite that success he's really had nothing to show for it beyond the group stage yet with two early playoff defeats. Andy shouldn't finish any lower than second place in this group and his set with Ben should be interesting.
l2ack.em_up - This won't be the first time that I try to promote Chris as an up and coming player in the league. So far it hasn't been my strongest prognostication as far as sscam is concerned... at least most of the time. This is Chris' 5th season in div A and out of his 4 previous ones he's only completed his sets once and the result was a great seed in the playoffs. He's shown that he can get it done against top level competition before and he's one of the most active guys in the league so that can only help your talent level. It's not going to be easy for him to make the playoffs in this group but a top 3 finish wouldn't surprise anyone.
eat_pinaples - Time to make Hope mad once again! Hope has a very wide range in her playing level.... one of the widest around. She's capable of playing at a level that could give a very good player some trouble in a short set and she's also capable of self destruction if her runs aren't going well. Last season Hope was one of the last victims on Derek's run to the div B title in a lopsided loss that tainted an otherwise impressive season. Before that season Hope had been in div A a couple times and she doesn't ever get shut out of the win column. Not really sure based on what we've seen that she has any chance of moving past group stage but she could ruin someone else's season by stealing a set win or two.
fhm_champion - Last season's champ is back for his 3rd time in the competition. With last season's title and last year's semis appearance, Ben is making a name for himself in the history of this competition. Will be the favourite to win this group and don't expect to see many upsets against him. Ben's defense is one of the best around and it makes it really hard for him to get upset over the course of 9 games. It's possible that Ben might lose a set in this group stage but the bottom line is that he does what he needs to do to win when the games are most important. Andy should be his only challenging set and there's no doubt Ben will have a chance to defend his title in this season's playoffs.
Oh My God! - JD is back after a season off for unknown reasons. JD is definitely a player who you'll see talking a lot of noise about friendly races so there must be people he's beating... just not sure who they are. This would be JD's 3rd time in the competition this year with the latest being season 3 where he scored a perfect 0-5 record in a group that wasn't much different from this one. He did have a playoff appearance to go along with that in the previous season and even won a playoff round so it's not all bad. This isn't the toughest group so I'm not going to say JD can't advance here but he'll need to play well in all his sets and take advantage of the lower rated players in the group.
safdarbandali - Safdar is back for yet another season and will be looking for even more success. He's been known as a strong shooter for some time now but is still looking for a major breakthrough in cam comps. In his previous SScam season he's been able to navigate tricky waters and has made the playoffs in all of his attempts all in the higher div A. In this group there is a clear top 3 that Safdar is a part of... the key will be for him to play his game and keep hitting great shots to keep his opponents off balance. Safdar's game is still a little too one dimensional for me to fall in love with it but what he does works for him and he can worry about winning the competition after he's qualified for the playoffs.
Pecking Order - 1.Ben 2.Andy 3.Safdar 4.Chris 5.JD 6.Hope
Group E
wyte.folks - We've seen the many sides of Scott in the previous 4 seasons of this competition. First off it's important to note that Scott is a player who's been around for years and years and has had past success in these competitions. He's even had success this year in competitions other than sscam but we really haven't seen the best Scott possible yet through a group stage here. He's had 3 playoff misses, once with an 0-5 record, and one first round exit. Last season his sets didn't even get completed which hurt his playoff odds once again. Scott is still one of the best players in the league and it's only a matter of time before he breaks through in this competition. On skill alone Scott is arguably the best in this group but I have a hard time picking him to dominate just because it hasn't been seen in a while.
hustle - “DIV A FOR ME JON i wanna get phucked in my mouf this season”. These are the words of the always classy Chad. Normally I don't take requests of this nature but in this case Chad was actually div B's runner up so we'll let it slide. Chad is no stranger to div A where he likes to talk trash against the so called godly, owners of pool. For the sake of everyone getting along we'll hope that Chad can have some kind of success here. It wouldn't be the first time as he's made a couple div A playoff appearances before earlier in the year. In this group Chad is going up against a bunch of people who play his kind of game except they do it better. He's going to have to add the word "safety" to his vocabulary to pull off some upsets here.
ImThatGood - So far this competition has managed to chronicle Matt's rise pretty well with his div B title in season 2 turning into making the playoffs last season and actually winning a round against a strong opponent. He's making it look easy so far but make no mistake that it's going to be a challenge once again for him to return to the playoffs. He's got a chance to win almost all of his sets in this group but none of them are really easy. The fact that he's likely to finish all his sets gives him a better chance of making the playoffs. Matt has definitely made an impression so far but it's important for him to become a little more well rounded to be comfortable in all situations. Definitely thinks the game well already but there's room for improvement.
Skills_ - Is there anyone who is more of a lock to make the playoffs than Craig? Yes, definitely there are other people but Craig's success in this competition has been fairly consistent and he's been in most of them over the last couple years. He's previously been the top seed in the playoffs and has done some damage in the post season. Craig definitely still cares about pool sometimes, he's just not very consistent with his caring. It's hard to stick to safeties when you're such a good shooter but Craig might be better off waiting for easier tables to run because sometimes he can get stuck attempting the impossible. Not a lot to criticize though because over the course of a 9 game set Craig will win games with both his safety and run game. Should be a lock once again for playoffs.
british_pool_wizard - Here we have Jason back for a second attempt in the competition. Last season he showed that he hasn't forgotten how to play with a solid playoff appearance. Wasn't exactly the most impressive group stage with only one real with to go along with an archive win. Jason is most recently coming off a pretty average showing in 8brcam's div B where he went out in the first round of the playoffs. Jason is definitely still a good shooter and he can finish fairly easy tables but he doesn't really come across as a guy who is going to force the issue in any particular direction. Skillwise I'd put Jason in the bottom half of this group and 2 set wins will probably be his best hope.
mvp_n00b - Steve is coming off a fairly impressive sscam season. Pretty good group stage got him into the playoffs and when he got there he showed that he still has some good play left in him, advancing to the quarter-finals. You never know which version of Steve you're going to see; he's usually very tough competition but on the flip side his table vision and shooting can disappear at a moment's notice. He relies quite a bit on late bangs in his runs which is a risky tactic, but with his english skills it actually does work out pretty well for him. Hard to believe Steve won't make the playoffs this season but he'll need to play all his sets and play them well.
Pecking Order - 1.Craig 2.Scott 3.Steve 4.Matt 5.Jason 6.Chad
Group F (Ben)
dwaechte - I have not recently seen Dan play, even while he made a great run in the playoffs in Div. A last season. When I played him he was a decent player, but not great. I think he has improved his game since then, going from last seasons playoffs, and I remember him as a solid runner. I think Dan will have a tough road in this group though, cause there are no easy matches. I see Dan just missing out on the top half of this group.
witheaze - Joey is a great runner who plays a fast temple style of game. He has recently returned and is still a very good player. However, this group is got a lot of talent in it, so he will not have an easy road vs anyone, but I still think he finishes in top half of this bracket.
allstar_soubanh - Pita has all the tools necessary to win at pool, but sometimes he just makes a bad decision and it can cost him. The only weakness might be a double bank haha. But he should also finish in the top half of the bracket in this group and make playoffs.
ItsAJ - Have not clearly watched AJ when he is playing, granted I been at his tables but not payed much attention lol. He has improved though the last few months and can beat anyone in this group if he plays a good set. I think however, with the talent in this group he will not make the top 3, but I would not be surprised if he did.
Travis - Travis is one of the best runners and bankers in pool. His snooker game might be questionable I am not sure, since he does not do it often, but nonetheless he should be in the playoffs, unless he has not been playing much, which could hurt his game play.
mike_the_champion - This fool thinks hes the best since he beat me in groups last season. Well I got news for you, its all about the playoffs!! Lol, just kidding he never said he was the best, but he is a solid player who has come on lately. He made playoffs last season but like I already mentioned, this group is tough, and Mike might not make playoffs with this tough group.
Pecking Order - 1.Joey 2.Travis 3.Pita 4.Mike 5.Dan 6.AJ
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