"Never make predictions,
especially about the future."
- Casey Stengel
Update #1 - April 15th, 2018And so the clash that is Clan League 10 has begun! In this update we will look at the results of the community polls to get a sense of initial expectations for each clan, team, and individual playing in Division A. Miraculously, three games have finished in the first week of play - however, if you're really excited about games with poor play and a three-way tie atop the standings at 3 points... you can fire me and replace me with Norman, because he appears to be jacked up about this. Congratulations on being the first person to do a mini-update in the middle of the thread. Maybe we can keep standings on this too.
Note: In the polls, a darker box = more votes.
1v1 French Brawl
There's a clear favorite here, and two clear underdogs - and just like the template itself, a lot of uncertainty in between. Pardon99 garnered strong support to take this tournament; Mikaela and Rogue NK not so much. In between, it doesn't really look like anyone knows what the eff will happen, so... good luck everyone!
1v1 Guiroma
Again, a clear favorite and a clear underdog with a lot of uncertainty in between, but I would suggest that this is a result of the quality of the participants rather than a messy template. MoD is the expected favorite even in a strong field; incredible to me (but reasonably justified) that a good player like INSIDE would rank second to last. Emu Pub trails far behind in the votes and, after his first game debacle, has a lot of work to do to change that perception.
1v1 Elitist Africa
Either I introduced a lot of bias, or we should have just skipped the polls and gone with my prognostications. To no one's surprise, MoD a favorite on Africa, with Juan getting a strong look at #2. Anything can happen in one game - can Juan pull an upset when it really matters? Fireice82 collected the first actual win on this template and looks to have high expectations as well.
Now seems to be a good time to note, since Fireice82's first place box is shaded, that one homer picked the GG player/team to win every single competition. Here's the real surprise - it wasn't Plat!
1v1 Battle Islands V
timon92 with high expectations, but Pardon99 and Krzysztof chipped away at his support. Really the question remains - who is Gibson? I'm fairly certain the poll response is a collective "We don't know."
1v1 Strategic Greece
The only certainty here seems to be that hobo will finish last. After that... tough players on a tough template. timon92 and MIFRAN split 12 of the 14 first place votes 6 and 6, with Pj and Master [QB] collecting the other two. Edge ended up in the middle of polling by virtue of a spread of votes all the way from 2nd place to 6th. Apparently no one gives Glam credit for actually being from Greece. Or was it Russia?
1v1 Pangea Ultima
The only uncertainty here seems to be why anyone would willingly play WR? Oh, no, that's my own personal opinion - don't worry, Njord will yell at me later. In an odd twist that makes it different from the other polls, there's a lot of certainty for how the middle of the pack will shake out and less certainty in first and last. Six of the seven players claimed at least one first place vote, with Master [QB] edging Rento 5 to 4. And for some reason, everybody seems pretty sure that JV will finish 5th.
2v2 Final Earth
Apologies for the random 4. Anyways, come on, no love for the 26 game win streak? People believe in the Master of Team Gamers, er, the Dead and Master Jz, but that matchup with |GG| should prove to be a tense one. In other news, I have unearthed another poll bias - there's a VS player voting highly for the M'H players/teams. Treason! Hang and quarter him! No really, I don't get it though.
2v2 Szeurope
In what's considered one of the tougher tourneys, basically no one has any idea what's going to happen. In a weird calculation, Buns157 & Nackickwind collected the most first place votes (7), but finished behind Timinator & Xenophon (4) in the poll. There are two possible explanations for this: 1) Masters rigging, as usual, or 2) The polls use some kind of effed up voting system like we use for voting in templates (CL9 1v1 Volcano Island nods in agreement).
2v2 Volcano Island
Pretty good consensus here, other than whether Masters or Lynx will come in first, followed by a nice cube of Outlaws, |GG|, and ONE!... and tell me if you've heard this before, M'H and VS bringing up the rear. Norman is SO MAD right now.
3v3 Biomes of America
Wow, these votes are messy. Lynx had a range of votes from 1st to 4th, Masters and Outlaws from 1st to 6th, and |GG| from first to last. It looks like we're just going to have to see how this one plays out. And then... Biomes can go hang out with Great Lakes in the "why doesn't anyone play us anymore?" hall of fame. You know 3v3 India has to be like "wtf, why doesn't anyone call me" at this point.
3v3 Europe
Last but not least, the granddaddy of them all, 3v3 Europe! Voting here is pretty tight - Masters nearly swept the voting (10 of 12 first place votes), followed by Lynx and Outlaws. Someone gave a pity vote to the M'H team, ranking them 6th instead of 7th. We're just a real nice bunch of guys and girls sometimes.
Division A Predictions
For overall results, most people expect Masters to go back-to-back (13 of 16 votes). I can confidently say that two of the other three are homer votes. Lynx and Outlaws round out the predictions podium, followed by |GG| and ONE! VS and M'Hunters viewed as most likely to relegate, with again just one person throwing M'H a sympathy 6th place vote. RAGE, NORMAN, RAGE!
Thanks, see you next time.
Edited 4/23/2018 06:42:27
