Finals
#17 dwaechte vs #10 scott22883 - Ok so even though it appeared to be a struggle at times we have finally made it to the final set in this season and the year for sscam. We have two first time finalists but both of these guys have solid reputations to back up their performances from this season. Last season Dan made it as far as the semi-finals before getting knocked out and it appeared that his season wouldn't go past there getting matched up with Trav but Dan pulled off one of the bigger wins at least that I'm aware of in his short cam comp career. He's overcome a number of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and at this point it's time to just say he's that good. Scott is definitely a player who fits the role of finalist quite well. His past success within this competition has been limited, only qualifying for the playoffs one time before and that ended in a first round defeat. Along the way Scott has beaten a former finalist, the #2 seed and last season's champ. It's important to acknowledge the 9-3 beatdown that Scott laid on Ben in the semis as that was probably the biggest blowout in the history of div A playoffs at this point. Going into this Scott is definitely the more aggressive player and that did end up helping him out quite a bit in the last set. Dan is able to run tables and is almost as good of a shooter but he's also on the lookout for safety opportunities. Somewhat of a clash in styles hopefully both guys are on their games when the set actually gets played. Dan seems to have improved quite a bit but it looks like Scott is on a big tear so I'm going to with him.
9-7 Scott
Semi-Finals
#17 dwaechte vs #12 Travis - no pred
Result - 9-7 Dan
#10 scott22883 vs #11 fhm_champion - Hey look it's finally a prediction! So after a long and seemingly arduous wait for Scott we finally have our second semi-final set up here. Scott is in foreign territory as far as sscam is concerned anyways as this has so far been his best run in the playoffs. He's got easily his toughest challenge coming up next having to play against last season's winner Ben. Somewhat of a clash in styles here as Scott will try to run just about any table as long as there's a little hope and sometimes when there's none. Ben is more of a patient player who does have great shotmaking ability to go along with it. Ben can sort of lull you into thinking you're only going to get safeties from him but he's usually just waiting for things to open up enough for his comfort level. Scott's aggressiveness won't be a bad style to try to take down Ben as long as he's finishing tables. It's hard to bet on someone maintaining a really hot running streak over the course of a race to 9 but if anyone can do it might be Scott. Even with that in mind Ben should get a chance to defend his title after a win here.
9-6 Ben
Quarter-Finals
#17 dwaechte vs #8 BrewersWin - no pred
Result - 7-4 Dan
#4 adambuddy vs #12 Travis - No one should be too surprised by the matchup we have here with a birth in the semi-finals on the line. Adam has always been a successful player in the competition but he's taken his game to another level this season, grabbing the high seed for the playoffs and dispatching of a legit in opponent in Joey by a wide margin. Travis is someone we've definitely seen here before but he hasn't really gone deep into an sscam playoffs in a while and his best showing was a semi final loss to Ant last year but that was his only time making it that far. Travis was a finalist in the prize tournament that went in the middle of the season so he's definitely shown he can do well in this and other cam comps. This should be a very entertaining set with seemingly both of these guys near the tops of their games. I'm picking Trav to win just because Adam really hasn't had a victory this big in a while, but if there was any time to do it, Adam is on form and he'll at the very least push Trav here.
8-6 Trav Result - 7-5 Trav
#2 spc_shogun vs #10 scott22883 - Well for me this is probably one of the best potential sets possible remaining in the playoffs. Neither player has really been known to have their best performances in sscam (although this is only Brian's second time) but both look to be on top of their games as of late. Brian is coming off a pretty easy previous round where he jumped out to a big lead and wasn't made to close his opponent out as JT gave up. Scott was facing David in the previous round and managed to get by in a much closer set. Both of these guys have been factors in cam comps and really should be considered contenders here again. Brian usually plays a little more under control than Scott but Scott is probably more of a threat to run any given table to you have to always be careful with what you leave him. Scott has been long overdue for a deep run in this competition and it looks like that might come at the expense of Brian's great season. Picking the upset slight upset here.
8-6 Scott Result - 7-4 Scott
#3 l1_stephen_1 vs #11 fhm_champion - no pred
Result - 7-2 Ben
Rd 2 Matchups
#1 Skills_ vs #8 dwaechte - Welcoming the #1 seed Craig to playoff action, his opponent is no longer a bye and he'll be facing off against Dan to start things off. Dan is coming off a pretty strong showing in the first round where he proved he was the better player in a decisive victory against JD. In previous seasons Dan has made quarter-final and semi-final appearances but he's never gone through an opponent of Craig's quality before to make it there. Craig would be unwise to take this match lightly as Dan is definitely a strong runner as well as being able to play safe when he needs to. Craig has been doing very well of late after turning in a great group stage that didn't have a set loss and included some good wins. Craig is going to have a pretty good chance of going all the way to the finals with no overpowering opponents on the way but he'll need to take everyone seriously starting here. Dan has impressed me with his play but Craig should take care of business here.
7-5 Craig Result - 7-3 Dan
#8 BrewersWin vs #9 haters - Here we have a re-match from the group stage where Nick took care of business with a 6-3 result. Both of these players are enjoying somewhat of a bounce back season. Ryan and Nick both missed out on the playoffs last season and their performances were rewarded with first round byes. Unfortunately that means that it'll be right into the fire right away with tough opponents. A 6-3 win seems decisive but anything can happen in a best of 9. This set should be closer because both of these guys can shoot and safety. If Nick shows up on form for this set he should win against Ryan and that's how I see it happening.
7-5 Nick Result - DQ win for Nick
#4 adambuddy vs #20 witheaze - This should be a pretty good round 2 set here. Adam has always been a playoff player in this competition but this season his group stage was a little better than usual and he's been awarded one of the higher seeds here. Joey is coming off of a first round victory where he was paired up against another player who had a bit of an incomplete group stage. Now he's got Adam in the way who is definitely playing well lately. Haven't really seen much of Joey's game yet still but based on his results he should at the very least give Adam some trouble. Adam can be very good and almost unbeatable when he's on his game but usually what you see from Adam is some great games mixed in with some pretty bad ones. As long as he minimizes those bad games and makes everything tough on Joey he can come through this set as winner.
7-5 Adam Result - 7-3 Adam
#5 AzN_PrIdE_LuVa vs #12 Travis - no prediction
Result - 7-3 Travis
#2 spc_shogun vs #18 jt.jester - no prediction
Result 7-0 Brian
#7 l3_lvl_x vs #10 scott22883 - This is a match between two of the better regulars in the league. These guys are fairly active members and cross paths in trnys all the time so they're definitely aware of each other. Scott is probably the better shooter, when he's hot he can run just about any table. David seems to play a little more under control and knows when to ease up on the gas pedal. David had a really strong season coming second in a pretty tough group after just one loss. Scott overcame a slow start to finish with 3 wins and another impressive group stage showing. Scott is playing a ton lately and he seems to be into it a little more so he probably holds the edge in this match. David has beaten Scott in a set before so don't be surprised if that happens again too.
Scott 7-5 Result - Scott - 7-5
#3 l1_stephen_1 vs #19 nhanxx - This entire little section for the first two rounds all came out of the same group in the previous stage and here we have another rematch. Stephen is coming off his best season in the competition where he only had 1 loss against 4 wins to give him this high seeding. Nhan just barely scraped into the playoffs with archive wins but once you're in that's all that matters as he won his first round match against Jon in a pretty close one. Both of these players have fairly similar styles of play in that they like to run first and that should be the main skill on display in this set. While this could develop into a macho run fest to see who the last real man standing is there could be some benefit in slowing down the pace a bit with some safeties for either of these guys. Stephen did win the first matchup 6-3 but Nhan is coming off reversing the result in his last rematch. Stephen should move on here but it will be close.
7-5 Stephen Result - 7-2 Stephen
#6 X_STRIKE_X vs #11 fhm.champion - Well well, here we have another rematch from the group stages and it's hard to tell if Andy will be looking forward to some redemption or if he'd prefer someone a little easier. Unfortunately he doesn't get too much of a choice as Ben is going to be the opponent. Ben is the defending champion and had a pretty big win against Andy in the group stages winning by a 8-1 score. Hard to believe that a rematch would end with such a large disparity once again but Ben definitely has the mental edge. Andy is a really tough matchup for anyone but it seems like Ben is an even tougher matchup. Pretty sure Ben's championship defense won't end this early.
7-5 Ben Result - 7-3 Ben
Rd 1 Matchups
#16 Oh My God! vs #17 dwaechte - The first round one matchup is a fairly interesting one. JD got off to a great start with his sets this season managing to win his first two before eventually losing his next two and winding up in 3rd place in his group. This is only JD's second playoff appearance but in his first one he did manage to win a set so definitely one to watch here. Dan on the other hand has been in the playoffs every season he's played so far. This season was a little more shaky for Dan as he had to rely on an archive win to make it here. Now that we're into the knockout phase though it's only going to take one good set from either of these players. Dan has proven in the past that his game is more consistent and he should continue to prove that here.
7-4 Dan Result - 7-3 Dan
#13 x_i_am_me_x vs #20 witheaze - Here we have a couple very solid players who have shown with their results that they can definitely hang with the best. Alex is coming off a less impressive season this time around as he was only 1-2 in real sets played. Two archive wins are what managed to get him up to this seeding and into the playoffs. Last season Alex was highly seeded coming into the playoffs and went out in the first round. Joey goes in here as possibly an underdog from looking at his seed. He managed to get in on just two wins but one of those wins was against Trav so he could also do really well here. Alex is definitely a tough player but Joey should pull through here.
7-5 Joey Result - 7-3 Joey
#12 Travis vs #21 pro.ch0ker - Guess who the last player to make it into the playoffs was? Nish! Came through at the last second submitting a couple archives where the first one was no good. But he came through in the clutch and the second set of archives got him a win to push him into a wildcard spot. Travis looked shaky early on losing his first set of the competition but has since stormed back with 3 decisive victories. If he's on for them he'll definitely be a favourite to win the whole thing. This is a pretty big mismatch but Nish has been around long enough to be able to put up a fight.
7-4 Trav Result - 10-8 Trav
#15 ImThatGood vs #18 just_a_martyr - This should be one of the more entertaining first round matchups. Really not too sure if either of them have much of a history of playing but both should be coming into this ready for test. Matt is seemingly improving every season after once again qualifying in div A. His season was once again pretty strong with a win against Scott being key to advancing. JT has had some pretty bad seasons lately and it looked like it was going to go that way again after he started with some losses. He managed to turn it around with a couple good set wins to get here. Both of these players have strong run games and if this was at the start of the season I'd probably have said Matt was clearly the stronger player. But with JT looking like he might be back on track he gets the edge in this match.
8-6 JT Result - 7-2 JT
#14 Drunk_Canuck vs #19 nhanxx - Here We have another re-match from group play where it was a pretty good match with Jon winning 5-4. Nhan is a solid overall player who has become well known the past year playing with a great boost of confidence and skill. Jon has always been a smart shooter and knows when to try and run and when to play it slow and let the table unfold to his advantage. Since both players were 3-2 in their respective group this could be a very entertaining matchup. Both players have a good opportunity to come out on top in this match. However, If both Nhan and Jon bring their average game, I think Jon will come out on top and win a hard fought battle with Nhan.
7-4 Jon Result - 7-5 Nhan
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