Daniel Dolinski's Blog

I want to start this by saying that The Schmoedown and the community means everything to me because even though we live all round the world, we can instantly interact with each other. Ten years ago, I was a fan of AMC Movie Talk with John Campea, Jon Schnepp, Dennis Tzeng, and Amyrose Eisenbach. It was here I was introduced to Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis.

When they moved over to Collider, I followed them because like many others I enjoyed learning about the daily movie news and their opinions they had about it. I saw the thumbnail for the match between John Campea and Dan Murrell but was not interested in viewing it. It wasn’t until Clarke Wolfe had a match with Josh Macuga that I decided to give it a shot. After watching the match, I continued to watch her matches with Finstock and Dan Murrell all in one sitting and it was this moment I became a fan.

I became a fan of many competitors: Brianne Chandler, Jeannine the Machine, Mike Kalinowski, Rachel Cushing, Mara Knopic, Kevin Smets, John Rocha, William Bibbiani, etc. My favorite moment is when Clarke Wolfe and Rachel Cushing defended the belts at Spectacular 3. I remember clenching my arms tight enough to suffocate myself with anticipation of their win. When they finally where declared the winners, I screamed so loud the whole house shook as if there was an earthquake.

I’ve also worked on TriviaSD.com, writing articles for The Schmoedown, and was happy to do it. I was able to interview people, give out my theories on what might happen, and state different perspectives without insulting my fellow writers. It is here where I learned a community is important, even if it is online. And during this pandemic, the community has become necessary to get through the isolation we are enduring.

Eventually, I was part of a show that allowed me to meet people that I would never see otherwise even if the pandemic didn’t exist. It was a great opportunity for me being I could finally use my educational background for the community that I care about everyday. “Was” is the key word because as of this moment, I will no longer be a part of The Jcast Network due to the recent events on the community. Despite these events, I’m proud of the work I’ve done over the past year: forecasting each faction’s points, finding every possible score within the game, and many other topics I covered on the show. My only wish is the community evaluate me for my opinions (whether wrong or right) and the work I’ve done being a Schmoedown Analysist.

My goal is to continue my work analyzing The Schmoedown one way or another but it will not be done on The Jcast Network. Whether it’s having my own channel or being on another one, I have not planned that far ahead. But whatever I do from here on out, note that I share the same values of gender equality and race equality as the community does.

We know the full slate of Spectacular V!!! Final Exam and The Odd Couple played a close match in all five rounds. This will definitely be a contender for Match of the Year. In Round One, Paul Oyama missed the first two questions while Lon, Marc, and Jeff scored perfect rounds with the bonus question. Both teams answer all six of their questions, but Final Exam was behind four points. Paul and Lon managed to gain some ground at the end of The Speed Round, have a score of thirty-eight to thirty-five. Ultimately, The Odd Couple won and are facing Shazam at Spectacular.

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With the Teams Tournament over, here is the schedule on December 12, 2020:

Star Wars Title Match: Alex Damon vs Andres Cabrera

Chris Jericho vs Brittney Young

Teams Title Match: Shazam vs The Odd Couple

Innergeekdom Title Match: Chandru Dhandapani vs Chance Ellison

Kevin Smith vs Brett Sheridan

Singles Title Match: Dan Murrell vs Adam Collins

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After crunching all the numbers and going over many scenarios, I came to one conclusion: Shannon Barney and Roxy Striar need each other to win Spectacular. Now, I’m not saying they partner up, but they need the other to win their matches in order to win in the rankings.

Korruption is in the lead with sixty-six points and could gain as much as twelve points by the end of the night. However, SWAG might be able to overtake Korruption if they win every single match by knockout and Dan Murrell defend the Singles Belt. And SWAG’s first match is the Star Wars Title Match. If Alex Damon is able to defend his belt for a fourth time, it would secure Korruption’s first place rank and get the RoxStars closer to third place.

The next two matches also feature RoxStars’ competitors Chris Jericho and The Odd Couple. We’ve seen The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla fight Kevin Smith all the way into Sudden Death and he’s going up against Brittney Young, who lost to Jader Paramo back in April. The Odd Couple have scored an average of 34.75 points in their last four matches while Shazam has averaged 31.3 points in their last three matches. Not to mention, The Odd Couple scored a new points record in Teams. If Jericho and The Odd Couple win their matches it would put the RoxStars in second place, but they may not be there at the end of Spectacular.

The Singles Title Match has Dan Murrell fighting Adam Collins as the last match of the night. If Dan wins, The Finstock Exchange will retake second place and have Gucci claim he’s better than Roxy, at least on paper. If Roxy is able to get to third place, she’ll need Adam Collins to win the Singles Belt to maintain that position. So, as I stated before, they need each other to win.

Even though Korruption is in position to win the points-race, SWAG has a small chance to still win. The scenario for SWAG to win is stated above, but as Master Yoda would say, “There is another.” Ace Cabrera could win the Star Wars belt and Chandru could knockout Chance or vice versa, which would cause SWAG to tie with Korruption’s current score. If Adam Collins loses the Singles Title Match, the result will be an additional match to determine the points-race. I personally don’t think any title match will result in a TKO or KO in this year’s Spectacular, but I’ve never rule out the possibility.

This will be the last Weekly Faction Forecast for the season and won’t be back until next season. However, I will make other posts throughout the hiatus. I would like to conclude this week’s forecast by announcing that I will be part of a new Schmoedown Sports Show called Speaking of Schmoedown with Jay Wade and Dean Lewis on the YouTube channel The Jcast Network on Saturdays. We’ll have guests where viewers can call in and ask questions, STATS breakdowns, ranking updates, news on up-coming matchings, and more.

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THE COYOTE HAS BEEN CUT!!! THE COYOTE HAS BEEN CUT!!! Deception and The Odd Couple were tied for most of the match, but it was in The Final Round the match was decided. Marisol answered the two-point question with ease while Marc Andreyko had some difficulty with his question: “What holiday are the Mad Hatter and the March Hare celebrating in Alice in Wonderland?” Disney fanatics know the answer was an Unbirthday Birthday, but since “Birthdays” are not usually a holiday, the question was challenged based on the wording. The challenge was upheld, a new question was asked, and Marc Andreyko received two points after answering the question.

Adam Collins faltered with his three-point question whereas Jeff Sneider was able to score his question. After taking the lead, Adam and Marisol received a difficult question for their five-pointer and incorrectly answered it. Even though, Adam Collins lost this match, Korruption is still in first place and has multiple paths to secure first place. More on this in a bit.

Founding Fathers had a great start in their match against Final Exam, scoring a perfect Round One eighteen to sixteen. However, Round Two is where things took a turn after landing on Eddie Murphy. John started to second guess himself rather than trusting his gut on several questions, which they went to multiple choice. They also allowed Final Exam to steal three points rather than two.

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The score after the first half of Round Two was twenty-five to nineteen and things continued to get worse for the Founding Fathers. Final Exam choose Audrey Hepburn after landing on Spinner’s Choice. Lon and Paul talked it out and managed to score eleven points in Round Two, making the score thirty to twenty-five. The Founding Fathers fought back to avoid the TKO, but after two questions, Final Exam won the match. The Finals will have The Odd Couple facing Final Exam next week.

With two weeks left in this season, here is how the points-race will look going into Spectacular:

[image error]If Final Exam wins The Finals.

If Final Exam wins the Teams Tournament, this ties the RoxStars and The Quirky Mercs with the same score, Threshold Range, and rank possibility. Both factions will be fighting for fourth/fifth place and have two matches at Spectacular that are worth seven points. And honestly, I think Kevin Smith and Chris Jericho will win their matches. The Star Wars and Teams Title matches will most likely decide their outcomes. And if they manage to still be tied, then their records will decide their rank.

That’s not all. The Finstock Exchange will remain in third place regardless the outcome of the Singles Title Match. SWAG is the only faction that has a shot at taking down Korruption. They’ll be in three title matches that are worth five points each. If they can manage to win all fifteen points, SWAG will overtake Korruption and win the points-race.

[image error]If The Odd Couple wins The Finals.

However, if The Odd Couple wins, the RoxStars have a chance to climb up to third place. overtaking The Finstock Exchange. Dan Murrell would have to be defeated by Adam Collins and every RoxStar competitors will have to win their matches. If all of this happens, Korruption will be in first place, SWAG will remain in second, RoxStars will be in third, The Finstock Exchange will drop to fourth place, and The Quirky Mercs will be in fifth. Next week, I’ll go into further details in describing all the different scenarios of what will happen if one faction wins a particular match once we know who wins in the finals.

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Korruption continues to dominate the rankings. Deception and Eliot Dewberry not just won their matches, but they knocked out The Lethal Weapons and Josh Macuga. With Korruption being at sixty-six points in the rankings, The Finstock Exchange are dangerously close to being knockout of the point’s race. The Founding Fathers need to gain knockouts in hopes to get back to the number one position.

Even though they did not get a knockout in their last match, The Founding Fathers won their match against The Witching Power. Haleigh and Perri managed to stay three points behind the former champions in every round. This loss has dropped The Quirky Mercs’ Threshold Range to forty-six points, which means they’re stuck in fourth place and could potentially drop in the rankings. The good news is they won’t drop below fifth place if the RoxStars do well in the upcoming weeks.

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The Dungeon had a much need win with Video Drew defeating Jen Kempe. We now can call the ranks for four of the nine factions this season:

PositionFactionLowest PointsHighest Points6The Den23267The Usual Suspects22228The Dungeon19229The Burning Droogs1212

Obviously, The Burning Droogs will be in last place since they have twelve points and have no more matches this season. The Dungeon will remain in eighth place even if they manage to win their match with a knockout at Spectacular and tie The Usual Suspects’ points. The reason is because The Dungeon’s record is six wins and fourteen losses, another win won’t be enough to beat The Usual Suspects’ record, which is eight wins and thirteen losses. The Den will be in sixth place because if they win their final match at Spectacular, it wouldn’t be enough to overtake the RoxStars.

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Next week is the Semi-Finals of the tournament, and three of the factions are fighting to either retain their rank or climb up. Korruption is the only faction that doesn’t have to worry about their rank since there is a fourteen-point gap between them and SWAG. But that could change if The Odd Couple manages to surprise us all and defeat Deception. Korruption will continue to be in first place until Spectacular, but based on the results, they could see either The Finstock Exchange or SWAG close that gap by December 12th.

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The Odd Couple won their match against Category 9 with a TKO. Brandon Hanna actually played well with Jader Paramo, claiming he wanted to help him through the tournament. And, to his credit, Hanna made an excellent challenge after Marc Andreyko gave his answer “Through the Looking Glass” when it should have been “Alex through the Looking Glass.” However, this didn’t deter The Odd Couple from gaining a six-point lead into The Final Round and ultimately the TKO. This gives the RoxStars thirty-four points rather than the thirty-three points that were forecasted last week.

This loss causes The Burning Droogs to be out for the rest of the season and they will remain in last place in the rankings. The Dungeon is also affected by this outcome as well; whether they win or lose their last two matches of the season, The Dungeon will most likely end up in eight place. The only way they could climb up in the rankings is if two things happens:

They need to win both their matches by TKO.The Usual Suspects have to lose every match they have left in the season.



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If those things happen, there’s a chance they could tie or be behind The Den in the end.

Speaking of The Den, Tom & Paul were defeated by SWAG’s Final Exam in a TKO. They struggled in Round Two with the category Comedies and gained only eight points. Final Exam swept through Festival Darlings and managed to steal two points from their opponents to have a seven-point lead. Tom & Paul fought hard in The Final Round but failed to answer their five-point question. The Den still has one match left at Spectacular with Brett Sheridan against The Quirky Mercs’ Kevin Smith. SWAG remains in second place with fifty-two points and needs to continue to win if they want to hold onto it.

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The last Schmoedown Throwdown for the season was on pay-per-view this week, but it will be available next Friday for everyone. Even though Shannon has managed Korruption to first place, Winston has surprised us all with Andres Cabrera, Chandru Dhandapani as the Innergeekdom Champion, and Final Exam. His biggest task is how will “The Wildman” Josh Macuga do against Eliot Dewberry? We know Josh is famous for guessing the right answers, but Eliot can actually play well. And since this is a retirement match, the loser will no longer compete in the Schmoedown. However, there is a positive side to Josh losing this match. He can always comeback as a manager (like Tom Dagnino), be the opening act at live events when we’re able to have them (like he has been doing for years), or . . . assume another identity and compete in more matches.

The undercard for the Throwdown is Video Drew vs Jen Kempe. As stated earlier, The Dungeon will most likely stay in eighth place in the rankings, but they could overtake The Usual Suspects place if they win by TKO. If The Usual Suspects win this match, they will move up to sixth place, overtaking The Den from now on until Spectacular. And if they manage to defeat Deception in next week’s match, The Usual Suspects might be able to climb to fifth or fourth depending on who wins the last match next week.

Founding Fathers vs The Witching Power. Dan Murrell and John Rocha are my personal favorites to win the whole tournament, and I can see them winning against Perri Nemiroff and Haleigh Foutch. However, I feel The Witching Power will give them a fight. They fought The Misfits with a seven-point deficit in the play-in match and came back in The Final Round. But even if they aren’t, it will always be nice to see Perri and Haleigh compete.

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Hello, everyone. I apologize for the tardiness of my forecast due to the election results. The Quirky Mercs have advanced into the Teams Tournament after coming back from a seven point deficit in The Final Round and The Misfits were unable to answer any of their questions. Perri and Haleigh will face the Founding Fathers in two weeks on November 20.

Next week, we go back to our regular schedule of two matches a week, starting with The Odd Couple vs Category 9. Jeff Sneider has been a strong competitor in Singles but is stronger with Marc Andreyko in Teams. This could give the RoxStars an opportunity to improve their ranking, even though their focus should be elsewhere as mentioned in my last post. If The Odd Couple win the match, they’ll be at thirty-three points with an additional point added to that if they TKO/KO their opponent, but Category 9 will stand in their way.

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The Burning Droogs need to win this some matches in this tournament if they want to get out of last place. Jader Paramo has proven he can hang in this league and won several matches in Singles. Brandon Hanna does have an 82.46% in Innergeekdom. While we discuss the difficulty in the division, they pull questions from certain franchises whereas Singles/Teams can pull questions from all theatrical movies. Another point about Hanna is he willing to work with a teammate? I doubt he would agree to be in a Teams Tournament if he wasn’t going to work a partner, but you never know until it happens.

Friday, we’ll see Tom and Paul face Final Exam. SWAG is at forty-eight point and are behind Korruption by eleven points. Final Exam could make up some ground in their deficit if they advance. Tom and Paul are the underdogs in this match after losing their only match back in February. Tom was on a roll winning several matches in the Single Tournament while Paul Preston had no wins. If they lose this match, The Den will be at risk of being at a lower rank.

Today, the United States is still tallying up the votes for the presidential election. I figured we can take a short break to analysis each faction’s threshold in the points-race. We’ll start off with the faction with the lowest to highest rank faction and see what their strategy could be going forward and what rank they could end up in.

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The Burning Droogs

We start off this analysis with The Burning Droogs, who are currently in ninth place with twelve points. If Category 9 can win every match and the Teams Title Match at Spectacular with a TKO/KO, they will earn eighteen points and could pass the RoxStars in the rankings. However if they just win, The Burning Droogs won’t pass the RoxStars and could take positions six through nine at the end of the season. Their immediate concern is to win at least two matches in the tournament to surpass the next faction in the analysis.

The Dungeon

While currently not in last place, The Dungeon isn’t doing well this season. They have played nineteen match, won only five of them, and just lost their play-in match with The Witching Power. Two matches remain for their season: Video Drew’s match against Jen Kempe as the undercard to the Wildberries Civil War and Brittney Young’s match against Chris Jericho at Spectacular. Even if they win both matches with TKO/KOs, that will put them at twenty-three points. All but two factions are at twenty-three or higher. The Dungeon’s outcome will most likely be either in eighth or last place.

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects started off the first half of the season on a hard note. However, when Samm Levine traded Ken Napzok and Jader Paramo for Ethan Erwin, it was a big payout. Jader only added three points to The Burning Droogs while Ethan added twelve points to The Usual Suspects. It’s no surprise Samm placed Ethan in the Teams Tournament to hopefully gain more points. If The Lethal Weapons can just win (no TKO/KOs), they can get as high as fourth place. There is no chance for them to get any higher rank even if they win bonus points. But with Adam Collins and Marisol McKee being The Lethal Weapons’ first match, they will have to be 100% perfect and hope Marisol stumbles in Round One and her Final Round question.

The Den

The Den has avoided being in last place after The Misfits vs The Witching Power Match, since they are at The Dungeon’s max threshold. If Tom and Paul can win the Teams Tournament and win both Spectacular matches, fourth place might be within their grasp if The Witching Power doesn’t advance any further in the tournament. Depending on how The Odd Couple, The Lethal Weapons, and Category 9 perform, The Den could end up in fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth place.

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RoxStars

The RoxStars are out of last place after this week’s match. If The Odd Couple can win the Teams Tournament this will move the RoxStars up in the rankings. How far? All the way to second place. While winning the Team Tournament is important, their focus should be, in my opinion, is to make sure Alex Damon stays the Star Wars Champion. He is the longest reigning champion in Schmoedown history (883 days from 7/13/18 to this year’s Spectacular 12/12/20) and is second to The Patriots with the most title defenses (three: Ken Napzok, Joseph Scrimshaw, and Laura Kelly). If the RoxStars allow Alex to lose this belt, it would tarnish their faction.

The Quirky Mercs

Coy’s strategy of competitors and having a fun attitude has landed The Quirky Mercs in fourth place behind the leaders. Shazam! is the current Teams Champion, Perri Nemiroff and Haleigh Foutch won their play-in match for the tournament, and Kevin Smith is facing Brett Sheridan at Spectacular. The Quirky Mercs have a chance to move up to second or third place, but they cannot have a single loss in any match. Right now, Coy should stick with his strategy since the lowest he could sink is sixth or seventh place without any wins and could maintain fourth or fifth place at Spectacular.

The Finstock Exchange

With their strong showing for the first half this season, you’d think The Finstock Exchange would be at No. 1 at the end. But they faltered in every tournament. Andrew Dimalanta, John Rocha, Mark Reilly, The Barbarian, and Emily Rose Jacobson have all lost in the tournaments so far. The Founding Fathers are the only chance to gain some ground and possibly get back into first place. They need to win against The Witching Power, the winner of Tom and Paul vs Final Exam, and hope The Lethal Weapons defeat Deception. Dan Murrell also needs to win against Adam Collins for the Singles Belt. It’s time for Dan to prove once and for all why he’s called The G.O.A.T.

SWAG

Looking at each faction’s performance, SWAG has a nice spread of points across all the divisions. They have scored twelve points in Star Wars, eight in Innergeekdom, seventeen in Singles, and eleven in Teams. With other factions, they seem to get the bulk of their points from one division; some in two. If Final Exam can dominate the Teams Tournament, SWAG can catch up with Korruption, especially if they get some bonus points. SWAG also has the Wildberries Civil War, Andres Cabrera and Chandru Dhandapani at Spectacular, but their main focus should be on the tournament for now.

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Korruption

At long last we get to the final faction: Korruption. They have a commanding lead for fifty-nine points with the majority of them coming from rookie Adam Collins. He ran the Singles Tournament, the Horror Free4All, and is the front runner for Rookie of the Year. Now that he is in Teams with Marisol McKee, Deception can blitz through the tournament because their Round 2 performance will be strong. If that happens, they will maintain their No. 1 rank, all before competing in their Spectacular or Wildberries Civil War matches. And if they win, Josh Macuga will be retired, have three champions, two of them who are rookies, and Adam Collins as the third double-belted champion.

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Happy Halloween Schmoedown fans!!! And boy did we get a treat this year. The Free4All Event always has surprises: from Andreyko’s XX5XX to Bibbiani’s still standing. This Mini-Free4All was no exception. One moment that I was dying for was to see how Jeff Sneider will do in a “genre” division. After hearing his comments about Innergeekdom and asking why there wasn’t a Horror or Crime Movies Division, I was dying to see how Jeff Sneider would do now that he was competing in one of his favorite genres. He entered and was eliminated in the sixth round with only two points.

One of the last surprises was JTE finally made his return to the Schmoedown. He was originally drafted with the RoxStars but was traded to The Burning Droogs for Josh Quevedo. It appeared this was going to be the first year we didn’t have JTE in the Schmoedown. However, when The Burning Droogs logo appeared on the screen, a familiar song played and I knew it was JTE’s opening song. He was number eighteen in the lineup and made it to the final three. He didn’t win it but it was still nice to see him again.

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Only three competitors really came to play: Witney Seibold, Marc Edward Heuck, and Adam Collins. Seeing these three go at each other for seven rounds was like watching a three-way standoff. In second to last round, Witney was eliminated after answering no questions correctly. Adam Collins won the entire Free4All; knocked out Paul Preston, Tim Franco, and Marc Andreyko in Round Four; and started in Round Two as the sixth competitor in the lineup. Marc Edward Heuck was MVP scoring thirty-one points in seven rounds and scored an additional point for Korruption for this achievement. This overshoots their forecasted score of fifty-eight points to fifty-nine points, eliminating The Quirky Mercs and RoxStars from the points-race.

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Next week is the start of the Teams Tournament with the play-in match of The Witching Power (Perri Nemiroff and Haleigh Foutch) vs The Misfits (Eric Zipper and Adam Witt). When I was looking at possible teammates for The Quirky Mercs, I instantly expected Perri and Haleigh to be together. They both have the knowledge and experience in the Teams Division and can have a great showing. But that’s not to say Eric and Adam will falter out of the gate. Eric has improved in his gameplay since joining The Dungeon while Adam has been waiting to prove himself to fans. This will be a great start to the tournament and the winner will face off against the Founding Fathers at the end of Round One.

Tom and Paul from The Den played only one match at the start of the season, losing to Deep 13 on a bad Opponent’s Choice decision. Hopefully they learned their lesson because they’re going up again a tough team. Final Exam won four out of five matches this year beaten by the current Teams champions Shazam. Otherwise, the only match The Den will have left for the remainder of the season is Kevin Smith vs Brett Sheridan at Spectacular.

The next match I want to discuss is Deception vs The Lethal Weapons. You have Adam Collins, who completely ran the Singles Tournament and facing Dan Murrell at Spectacular, paired up with Marisol McKee, who made a strong showing against Bonnie Somerville and had a close match against Paul Oyama. These two could be future Teams Champions, but they will have to defeat Ethan Erwin and Andrew Ghai which is no easy task. Ethan outplayed Jeff Sneider in the Singles Semi Finals and lost due to a tough five-point question and Andrew is no slouch in Teams.

The last match to analyze is The Odd Couple vs Category 9. I must admit the RoxStars have improved their game in the backend of the season despite Jeff not winning the finals in Singles. Sneider and Andreyko have been together for over two years, but Sneider said if they don’t get the belts back this season, he’ll consider getting a new partner for next season. If they do win this match, it will also mean The Burning Droogs will be in last place for the remainder of the season. But Jader Paramo has higher STATs than either Marc or Jeff. The real questions are can Brandon Hanna play outside of Innergeekdom and can he cooperate with another competitor?

Unless more matches are announced on the website on Sunday or Monday, Round One is expected to be completed on November 20th, with Round Two matches happening the following week. We will have a small break from the tournament on November 13th with the Wildberries Civil War. Josh Macuga vs Eliot Dewberry with Video Drew vs Jen Kempe as the undercard. A new post will be coming next week to breakdown the Faction Threshold Range for each faction.

I want to start this post by addressing what happened earlier last week with Kevin Smets. 2020 has sucked for all of us. A global pandemic with over a million who lost their lives, people losing their jobs and struggling to stay afloat, businesses, schools, and local events closed due to the pandemic. The Schmoedown has been a small sliver of enjoyment in this year, even though it’s a digital format, and also interacting with our favorite competitors or personalities from the Schmoedown has been a bright spot for us.

Earlier this year, Kevin’s announcement of having a daughter and getting married are happy moments only to be ruined by his diagnosis of stage three colorectal cancer in September. Kevin is a fighter, I knew as much since his first match last year against David Moore. I knew he would be a champion someday, if not soon. And while he might have to take time away from this sport that we love, no amount of time away will make us forget him or make us think he’s not a fighter. Kevin, you #SmashCancer until you’ve beaten it and are ready to come back.

If you’re able to donate anything, click the link to help him out on his GoFundMe page. Or at very least, get yourself screened so you can catch it early and beat it.

Now this week’s forecast:

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The Singles Tournament has finally concluded. Adam Collins, who started in a play-in match with Andres Gallego back in August, faced Jeff Sneider on Thursday. We knew it was going to be an exciting match from the managers going at each other to the competitors proving themselves to the Singles Champion Dan Murrell. Despite the managers being more civil than last time they were together, Shannon and Roxy took some big shots at each other.

The match itself was tight the whole way through. Adam gain a one-point lead after missing the bonus question in Round One. Both competitors were perfect in Round Two, but the Betting Round is were Adam furthered his lead. He bet a single point after hearing the category was in Young Adult Adaptations. Jeff answered incorrectly and lost two point while Adam had the correct answer. By the end of the Speed Round, Adam maintained his four-point advantage and won the match after Jeff avoided the TKO and failed to get his five-point question.

But it wasn’t all sunshine for Korruption. Shazam managed to take the Teams Belt from them after a poor performance from Mike Kalinowski. Korruption managed to cut Shazam’s lead to five points after the Betting Round but were back down by eight points after the Speed Round. Shannon gave a motivational speech, telling Mike and Chance if Shazam wins make them earn it. Korruption answered all three questions in The Final Round but Shazam won their three-pointer with a final score thirty-nine to thirty-eight.

Conversely, the RoxStars tasted some victory in the undercard match with Stacy Howard vs Grae Drake. Last week I said Stacy was going to win from Grae’s ring rust, but I was surprised Grae actually maintained her lead after Round Two. However, The Final Round is where she lost the match after failing to answer all three of her questions. Stacy added two points to the RoxStars’ score, which is now thirty points.

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Before getting into the Horror Free4All forecast for all the factions, let’s see everyone’s Faction Threshold Range. Currently, the leaders’ scores are between forty-seven and fifty-five points. This eliminates The Den, The Usual Suspects, The Dungeon, and The Burning Droogs from the points-race and are fighting each other to stay out of last place. Korruption is at fifty-five points, so technically The Quirky Mercs and RoxStars are still in the race. But two things need to happen for The Quirky Mercs and RoxStars to remain in it:

Not only do they need to win, but they need to TKO/KO every opponent they face from now until the end of the season.The leaders can NOT surpass sixty points.

To put this in perspective, if Korruption wins two matches, both factions are done. That includes The Wildberries Civil War (assuming two points), the Horror Free4All (three points), any Team Tournament matches, Spectacular matches, or matches that might be announced later. Even if you assume they just win their matches, The Quirky Mercs will have fifty-three points and RoxStars will have fifty-two points. And since they’re on opposite sides of the bracket, one will lose at the finals. Needless to say, one, if not both, will be out of the points-race but might be safe from last place.

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With the Horror Free4All, every faction has a chance to add three points to their score. Korruption will maintain their first place position whether they win or lose. SWAG and The Finstock Exchange need these points to stay competitive with Korruption. If The Finstock Exchange wins, they’ll move up to second place whereas SWAG will maintain it. The Quirky Mercs, RoxStars, The Den, Dungeon, and Droogs will also maintain their positions no matter the outcome. The only other faction that could move up in the rankings in The Usual Suspects into sixth place if they win.

The big story this week is not the results of the Semi-Finals, but Roxy Striar’s managerial actions in the Erwin/Sneider match. After spinning on BioPics, Jeff spun the wheel one more time to land on 80’s Movies. Longtime fans of the Schmoedown know that when Jeff lands on an undesirable wheel slice, he shuts down in defeat before the match is even over.

However, at the start of the Final Round, Roxy aggressively told him to get his head back in the game. Speaking only for myself, I never liked how Roxy acted in the Final Round despite understanding she’s playing heal. It came off as too annoying for me. Seeing her force Jeff back in the game was the first time this season that she has appeared as a manager, even though this most likely happens off camera. The result ended with Jeff winning the match after Ethan missed his three and five-point question.

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On Friday, Adam Collins maintained a two-point lead over Liz Shannon Miller all the way to the final score of twenty to eighteen. Liz played a great game since she only missed one question in Round One and would have gotten the bonus point with ease. She would have taken Adam to his five-pointer had she gotten a perfect Round One. Although she is done for the rest of the season, we will look forward to her next season.

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Next Thursday is going to have fireworks as Roxy and Shannon will once again duke it out in the Singles Final with Jeff Sneider vs Adam Collins. I’m not going to lie, I’m probably more excited to hear the two alpha-females go off at each other before the match. Roxy needs this win more than Shannon does, but nothing would please Shannon more to have her rookie face the GOAT Dan Murrell at Spectacular while at the same time defeat Roxy.

The Team Title Match will air on YouTube for everyone Next Friday where Shazam will take on Korruption. After being knocked out of the Singles Tournament. The Quirky Mercs need to take the win, otherwise they will be on the verge of losing their fourth place position. As for Korruption, if they defend the belts and win the Singles Final, they will enjoy a nice lead compared to SWAG and The Finstock Exchange.

Stacy Howard and Grae Drake fight it out as the undercard in the Teams Title Match. For years, Stacy has been underrated as a competitor but this is her chance to give the RoxStars two extra points. Grae has been away from the Schmoedown since June 2018 in Teams and June 2016 in Singles. Dan Murrell, Mark Reilly, and Andres Cabrera returned after a long hiatus and lost their first match back. Hopefully I’m wrong, Grae gives us a great match, and The Finstock Exchange takes the win, but history has shown that ring rust is a thing in the Schmoedown