I've spoken about the two players fighting it out in the Winner's Bracket - but what of the other side of the coin? 4 huge name players were eliminated in Losers' Bracket Round 7 - Josemurc, dagabs0, rdrivera2005 and peterwiggin - and finish their tournaments runs in joint 13th place, just about making the cutoff for prizes. 4 more players eliminated in Round 8 will join them in that prize tier, while 4 others will get one step closer to the finals.
PLAYER SPOTLIGHTS - LOSERS' BRACKET ROUND 8
In fact, one of these Round 8 sets has already been concluded.
Set #207 - BALKI BARTOKOMOUS vs SPLITDIPLOMAT
gameID=200820gameID=200822gameID=201153 (Tiebreak)
At the beginning of this tournament, both SplitDiplomat and Balki Bartokomous were Diplomacy Kings, with SplitDiplomat in the #1 spot in the webDiplomacy rankings and Balki Bartokomous at #1 over on PlayDiplomacy. Although both have since been dethroned (by the same player!), it was truly a clash of the titans as SplitDiplomat took the victory in the tiebreaker match. Split is now waiting to find out who his next opponent will be - and whichever player wins set #208, it's going to be a tough matchup.
SET #208 - GHUG vs DJANTANI
(Games are currently being set up - GameIDs will be posted when they begin)
While Balki Bartokomous and VillageIdiot have been fighting for the #1 spot in Full Press on PlayDip, Djantani is undisputably PlayDiplomacy's top Gunboat player, and that skill transitioned well onto the France vs Austria map. He's currently ranked at #15 in 1v1 Elo on webDip, and has previous been in the top 3.
After knocking early favourite Peregrine Falcon out of the Winner's Bracket in Round 3, he met his match against Genghiz, but quickly regained his footing and defeated both VashtaNeurotic and peterwiggin 2-0 in the Losers' Bracket. He'll be looking to continue that run against Ghug - but it's not going to be easy.
While Djantani excels in gunboat, Ghug is well known for his exceptional Full Press play. While he's recently dropped off Ghost Ratings due to his inactivity in ranked games, he ranked in at #6 in Full Press and #12 overall back in April, and he also successfully managed to transfer his skills across from the Standard variant to the 1v1 scene. After an undefeated run of 8 games, Mercy pulled off a huge upset in Round 5, knocking him down to the Losers' Bracket, where he's been waiting for an opponent ever since. The big question here - will he be able to avoid the fate of fellow top Full Press player peterwiggin? Or will the PlayDip gunboater send him crashing out too?
SET #205 - FLUMINATOR vs THORONDORNL
gameID=204146gameID=204147While the Showdown was open to players from all sites, the vast majority of signups came from webDiplomacy and vDiplomacy - just 5 of the 110 who started out originated from PlayDiplomacy, and two of those players were eliminated in the second round. The three that remained, however, all made it to Round 8 of the Loser's Bracket, causing one spectator to dub them 'The Three Musketeers of PlayDip' - which perhaps cursed them, since the first (Balki Bartokomous) fell immediately afterwards. Djantani and ThorondorNL are the other two, and both are looking very strong.
Nobody has had a run quite like ThorondorNL's. After getting a bye past the First Round, he entered the tournament with (supposedly) a fairly easy draw, since his initial seeding was very high. Unfortunately for him, that 'easy draw' was Mercy, leading to a defeat in the very first round he played and an immediate drop to the Losers' Bracket. Since then, though, he's had an incredible run of sets, defeating vDiplomacy's #1 1v1 player Devonian, early favourite Peregrine Falcon, and most recently gunboat legend Josemurc - and many more besides. After facing potential elimination and overcoming it for 6 rounds, he's not about to let up now.
Taking a look at his opponent, Fluminator, we see a massive contrast. A late entrant to the tournament, Fluminator claimed to have never played a 1v1 before the Showdown, yet blitzed through the Winners' Bracket, defeating top Gunboater dagabs0 and Full Press player AlexNesta before being knocked into the Losers' Bracket by none other than Xorxes. He's an extremely unusual player in that he still claims to be bad at the variant, and attributes many of his wins to blind luck - but this is very likely just a strategy to make opponents underestimate him, and this far into the tournament nobody is going to be falling for that.
It should be interesting to see which prevails - the incredible drive and determination of ThorondorNL, or the 'Blind Luck' of Fluminator.
SET #206 - Y2KJBK vs SANTACLAUSOWITZ
gameID=203415gameID=203416gameID=203993 (Tiebreaker)
This set is already on its tiebreaker, and it's one hell of an interesting game to watch. A huge early positional advantage by Austria has nearly been overturned by superior tactics from France, but the game is still on a knife-edge. Austria (Y2kjbk) has 18 centers reachable, but it's going to be a hard fight to collect them before France (SantaClausowitz) breaks his line.
Both players are high level gunboaters on webDiplomacy, and both have successfully adapted their tactical prowess to work in 1v1s. Both players have also beaten extremely good players to get to this point - with the list of players Y2kjbk sent to the Losers' Bracket including site #19 Hellenic Riot and fellow gunboater Josemurc, and with SantaClausowitz beating former site #1 SplitDiplomat and high level gunboater dagabs0. Both were also sent to the Losers' Bracket by the two players who are responsible for the majority of the surviving LB players being there - genghiz knocked out Y2kjbk in Round 4, and SantaClausowitz was a victim of the long line of upsets Mercy caused in the Winners' Bracket.
1v1 Showdown - An Update
, with 1500 of those going to the overall victor.
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