Totally missed this post lolEVO Beta pools are out! Nothing in these is final, and due to how it's formatted, Round 1 pools is going to be really pointless to talk about here, so I'm going to to over hypothetical early matchups in round 2 pools, barring upsets.
Disclaimer: The spoiler below contains entirely hypothetical matches that may not happen due to changes in pool and upsets, this is a sorta-guess based on a projected beta bracket, and this should not be taken as the truth.
G200: Nairo vs FOW is the predicted winners finals of the pool, and I think FOW could give Nairo a real run for his money. Also projected to be in this pool are Saj. , Mr. E , Pugwest , and DKWill , with only one of these four making it out alive, assuming they don't upset either Nairo or FOW.
Interesting potential matchups: Mr. E vs Pugwest , Mr. E vs Saj. , FOW vs Mr. E
Other wildcards: Bt. Yamato , Wii Twerk Trainer
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G201: Larry Lurr vs Tsu- is the projected winners finals here. Given the matchup, I feel like Larry's DK could probably make an appearance, as well as Tsu-'s Ryu for the DK or even the Fox. Ac is projected to fight Tsu-, which could probably go either way. How easy is it for MK to Ladder Lucario? There's also a ton of wildcards in this pool, including Rain , JJROCKETS , Kogarasuma , and Aarvark .
Interesting potential matches: Tsu- vs Kogarasuma , Ac vs JJROCKETS
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G202: VoiD vs Raito is the projected winners finals here. I'm pretty sure these two have played before, at CEO Dreamland, and the matchup seems pretty bad for DHD all things considered, so I'd say VoiD is pretty heavily favoured here, although Raito will put up a fight. To get to Winners finals, VoiD has to fight Umeki , a matchup that Sheik mains have had issues with, while Raito has to fight Rich Brown . I wouldn't be surprised if either of these two got upsetted, although between the two I'd say Umeki's more likely to beat VoiD than Rich is to beat Raito.
Interesting potential matches: Umeki vs Konga , Rich Brown vs DJ Jack , Rich Brown vs Konga , Rich Brown vs Umeki
Other wildcards: Konga , Deathorse , DJ Jack
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G203: KEN vs ANTi here. I think it's unlikely ANTi will stay Mario for the whole thing, and he usually tries ZSS vs Sonic over any other character. I'd favour KEN here, although I don't know what his record vs Choco is so I'm not really sure how he fares vs ZSS, or how ANTi's Cloud will impact it. ikep is projected to fight KEN, and I'm not sure if he's beaten KEN before but that's an upset waiting to happen potentially. ANTi, on the other hand, has to face Myran , which could also easily go Myran's way, although obviously ANTi is favoured.
Other wildcards: John Numbers , Ven , SS
Interesting potential matches: John Numbers vs Myran , ikep vs SS , ikep vs John Numbers , ikep vs Myran
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G204: Abadango vs Locus , in what's otherwise a pretty quiet pool. I'd say Aba is the more likely of the two to come out on top, but this one could honestly go either way. Aba may also go Rosa, although that's unlikely, and I doubt Locus's Bayo is ready for this. The only other super notable people in this pool are Dath and Lima .
Interesting potential matches: Dath vs Abadango , Lima vs Dath
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G205: Mr. R vs Elegant is projected here. I'd favour Mr. R here based on matchup, and I don't think they've fought Sheik-Luigi, have they? I know Mr. R went Cloud vs him at a MSM. Mr. R notably could to fight DarkShad , and while I don't doubt he's improved in the matchup since his loss to Locus last december, it's still a possible upset.
Other wildcards: Tyrant (I doubt he'll beat Elegant otherwise I'd have put him up there ^), Bloodcross , Xaltis
Interesting potential matches: Tyrant vs Bloodcross , Xaltis vs DarkShad ,
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G206: Tweek vs Kameme . I think Kameme won the last time they played, but I'm not sure? I could see this starting as Cloud-Mega Man but switching to DK-Sheik by the end of the set. Might also see Kameme's Yoshi vs the DK, he did that vs M2K's DK. Eon is also projected to face Tweek in semis of the pool, and he has beaten Komo twice, so there's the possibility for an upset there. Luhtie faces Kameme, but I think Kameme's Sheik will be able to handle that.
Other wildcards: Ri-ma , Vinnie
Interesting potential matches: Eon vs Ri-ma , Vinnie vs Eon , Luhtie vs Ri-ma , Ri-ma vs Vinnie
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G207: Kirihara vs Fatality . Kirihara's in some serious trouble here. He's fallen to Fatality in the past, and Japan in general gets hard countered by Falcon, so it'll be very rough for him. Interestingly enough, they both fight good Foxes to get to winners finals in ZD and NAKAT . ZD's beaten Fatality in the past, but it's NAKAT that fights Fatality this time, and I could definitely see the upset happening.
Other wildcards: Blacktwins ,
Interesting potential matches: NAKAT vs Blacktwins , NAKAT vs ZD (I think he'll go Ness)
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H200: ZeRo vs Nietono . Unfortunately, ZeRo's so good at the Sheik matchup that I can't see Nietono putting up much of a fight here. Stranger things have happened, and I'm not going to count Nietono out completely, but it's a very hard fight for him. SGK gets her runback vs ZeRo in semis of the pool, and Sonics have been regularly pushing ZeRo to game 5 recently, so I think the biggest chance for a ZeRo upset lies with her. Nietono fights Edge in a japanese teamkill, and I think Edge has a fair shot of taking it over Nietono, leading to a Diddy Ditto finals of the pool.
Other wildcards: Seagull Joe , ImHip , FILIP
Interesting potential matches: SuperGirlKels vs Seagull Joe , Edge vs Nietono ImHip vs Nietono , Edge vs SuperGirlKels
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H201: MKLeo vs WaDi . If Leo aba is any indication, Leo has a firm grasp on this MU, and while WaDi plays quite a bit different from Aba, I still think it's heavily favoured for Leo. Perhaps more interestingly, WaDi plays Earth in semis. I'd say Earth has a better chance against Leo than WaDi, but Earth has to beat WaDi first, which could be difficult.
Other wildcards: Xzax , False
Interesting potential matches: WaDi vs Earth , Xzax vs MKLeo , Earth vs False , Xzax vs Earth
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H202: Ally faces off against MVD . MVD's gotten a ton better and I think he'll make Ally work for it, but Ally's also most likely the best in the world against Diddy, if his wins vs ZeRo are any indication. Ally has to face Chanshu in semis, which I think is good upset potential, considering how good Chanshu is. MVD also fights Wrath , which will be a real test of his patience.
Other wildcards: KOSSismoss , Charliedaking
Interesting potential matches: Chanshu vs KOSSismoss , Wrath vs Charliedaking , Wrath vs Chanshu , Chanshu vs Ally
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H203: Dabuz vs 9B is the projected finals here. Kinda like with Ally/MVD, I can see 9B putting up a good fight, but Dabuz is one of the best in the world vs Bayonetta. They did play before at Shots Fired 2, but that was a patch ago and both Dabuz and 9B have changed styles to be more offensive since then. Dabuz faces Takera in semis of the pool, and while I think Takera is a top 2 Ryu in regards to skill, he's got one heck of a challenge for him in Dabuz. 9B faces Static Manny in semis, in what could be the longest set of the tournament.
Other wildcards: K9Sbruce , 8BitMan
Interesting potential matches: 9B vs Static Manny , Takera vs Static Manny , Takera vs 8BitMan , K9Sbruce vs Static Manny
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H204: Salem vs Falln . I'm curious to see if Salem's inability to beat Dabuz is a Rosa problem or a Dabuz problem, and I guess we might get an idea of that here. Falln has to run a Bayo gauntlet actually, he fights JK in semis. Salem, on the other hand, fights Eim . That could be interesting since Sheik is being considered to be somewhat worse off for Bayo now(?), although given most of japan's DI/SDI habits vs Bayo, I'm not holding my breath.
Other wildcards: Sol , Vash
Interesting potential matches: Falln vs JK , Salem vs Eim , JK vs Eim
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H205: Komorikiri vs Samsora . Finally, a bracket where it looks like Samsora doesn't have to fight a good MK! That being said, Komo's going to be no easy task, either with Cloud or with his incredibly patient Sonic. Komo vs Ryuga in semis is going to be interesting, as Ryuga's actually really good and could be a huge threat to Komo. Samsora runs the Mario gauntlet of RFang and Zenyou to get to Komo, although Peach appears to be one of Mario's hardest matchups.
Other wildcards: RFang , Captain L
Interesting potential matchups: Captain L vs Ryuga , Ryuga vs Komorikiri , Ryuga vs Zenyou
(Captain L got a super unforgiving bracket, damn)
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H206: Projected finals is Captain Zack vs Zinoto . Is the Diddy-Bayo matchup still considered Bayo's worst, or are people saying it's Cloud now? Regardless, this one's going to be interesting, or possibly another display of Bayo planking. Will Zinoto fare better against it than MVD? Zack fights Cosmos in semis, and Cosmos did beat Zack kinda convincingly recently, so that's going to be something to watch out for.
Other wildcards: Pink Fresh (Very doubtful he'll beat Zinoto), Ling Ling
Interesting potential matches: Captain Zack vs Cosmos , Zinoto vs Cosmos , Ling Ling vs Pink Fresh, Pink Fresh vs Cosmos
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H207: This is the pool to watch out for. Finals is currently projected to be Ranai vs ESAM , which I'd say ESAM, who's been playing on fire recently, would probably take. Ranai vs DLC is back again, this time in the form of Tyroy . I can't remember how Ranai does vs Bayos at the minute. ESAM fights Dyr in semis, and all his practice vs MVD should let him handle Dyr fairly easily.
Other wildcards: Mekos , IcyMist , Mistake , IxisNagus
Interesting potential matches: Ranai vs IcyMist , Tyroy vs Mekos , Mekos vs IcyMist , Dyr vs Mekos , Mistake vs Tyroy , Dyr vs Mistake
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Again, this is all just off of the beta pools, and projected seedings, so this could be fairly off by the time EVO rolls around in two weeks. I also want to emphasize these are round 2 pools, not round 1 pools, as I found halfway through a round 1 pool post that it was really pointless since no exciting matches were happening until R2 pools.
I spent way more time on this than I should have.
Brief comments on this
-Suinoko vs. Mr. R is round 2 of R2 pools. Suinoko is in the same echelon as Kome & Hiro, a part of the group of Kyushu (Shuton's region) that occasionally do well in tournaments. I think it'd be foolhardy to call it a surefire upset, but it's one I'd keep my eye on.
-Ri-ma vs. Tweek is plausible, and Ri-ma has a set on Komo. Ri-ma's kind of fallen off since TBH6 but I think if he has it in the tank to beat Eon that he'll probably also run through Tweek. Tweek tends to fare less well at multi-day majors and Japan does well vs. Cloud, usually, and rarely is destroyed by him even if they lose (See Leo's very shaky run at Umebura, dropping games to Masashi/Choco/Kirihara before getting destroyed by KEN) so I think Ri-ma will be very well prepared.
H207 is the most volatile on the list. I expect Tyroy to come out of it but I could be wrong.