The Tournament
Breaking Down the Brackets
By Jumping Jackman
1-20-2035
Considering the brackets were randomly arranged they divided the power players in this tournament almost as evenly as they did the nationalities. Only one bracket seems overloaded and only one seems week. Having said that, let's take a look at them one at a time.
Bracket 1
Julie Amore, France
Kyle Devore, USA
Blake Ezor, Germany
Damien Johnson, USA
Blake Ezor is unanimously considered the best player in the tournament, so he should advance no problem. Damien Johnson has won five national titles and shouldn't have any problem securing at least second place. Julie is a dark horse and she's good enough to overtake Damien if he stumbles. Kyle has lost fifteen straight to Damien and hasn't shown a consistent spark since his rookie season. No way he finishes above third.
Bracket 2
Max Fields, USA
Katya Floski, Russian
Kim Jong, China
Roland Windom, UK
Kim Jong has only lost three games in his four year career and two of those were during the shocking National Final upset loss a year ago to Sing Lee that ended his 40 match winning streak. He's never faced the level of violence and bile international players are capable, but then again international players have never faced as disciplined a mind as Jong possesses. He should win this bracket. Katya Floski won five National Titles with an intriguing mixture of sexual aggressiveness, action oriented scenarios, and a surprise twist or two. She is a tough out and should finish second, and it wouldn't be a shocker to see her finish first. Roland Windom wins at a 68.6 clip and is 36-0 lifetime when he's the underdog. The big question mark for him is his ability to cope with the defensive rule difference from British play to International play. If Roland does make the adjustment, he'll be very dangerous. Max Fields hasn't won the big one since forever but he has done so, and only Harry Brown has more professional game experience. Don't count him out either. This is, from top to bottom, the strongest bracket.
Bracket 3
Alyson Kerrigan, USA
Kurt Shilling, Germany
Gabrielle Sallor, France
Leo Rameriz, Mexico
This bracket should be a two way dogfight between the excellent Kerrigan and the unpredictable but very good Sallor. Since the top two in each bracket make it, don't expect these two to bring out their best scenarios when they face each other in the first round. All they have to do is stay ahead of the much weaker Leo Rameriz and courageous but grossly outmatched Kurt Shilling. It would be wonderful to see Shilling make it past the first round, but such a miracle is so astronomically out of reach for the brave lad that his approach has correctly been to be happy he's in the tournament at all. This is by far the weakest bracket and it wouldn't surprise me to see none of these players survive past the second round.
Bracket 4
Harry Brown, Canada
Sissy Crydom, UK
Anne Layden, Italy
Eli Vaquez, Spain
Beyond the venerable Brown, who should roll, this is an unpredictable bracket. Any of the other three could vie for the other second round berth. Anne Layden is winless in four championship appearances, but she does have more wins lifetime than all but two Italian players. This could be her moment to make a name for herself. Sissy Brown could scare people if she makes the rule adjustment also facing Windom. And Eli Vaquez can go 4-0 in the first round or 0-4, depending on which Eli shows up. Will it be the one who went undefeated in the regular season last year or the one who went 0-2 in the Spanish Title Round to finish that season? The one who won three titles in a row to start his career or the one who lost in the first round the next three seasons? If Eli is hot, he could go deep in the Tourney. But the safe bet for this bracket is Brown and Layden.
Home
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
