We are half-way finished with Round Two Matches in the Singles Tournament and there have been several key developments:

RoxStars are trying to stay out of last placeThe Burning Droogs are out of the tournamentJeannine the Machine scored The Usual Suspects three pointsDespite out playing Dan Murrell, Ben Bateman lost the title match in the final roundChance Ellison is once again defeated by a tough five-point question



[image error]

With Marc Andreyko out of the tournament, the RoxStars have no chance to catch up to the leaders. Their only hope now is to stay out of last place. Fortunately for Roxy Striar, The Burning Droogs have been knock out the tournament when Tom won his match against Jader Paramo. This buys the RoxStars some breathing room since she is ahead of the other factions, Jeff Sneider is facing Paul Oyama on Tuesday, and Alex Damon is defending the Star Wars belt for the fourth time against Andres Cabrera at Spectacular V. She might not win the points race, but she is still has a few cards up her sleeves.

Currently, The Burning Droogs are in last place with twelve points but that doesn’t mean they’ll stay there at the end of the season. The Dungeon, RoxStars, and The Usual Suspects are all in a race to stay out of last place. The Den is teetering on fifth place and eighth place, so long they can win one more match. All of these factions can continue to distance themselves from The Burning Droogs if they manage to stay in either the Singles or Teams Tournament. Ken’s only hope is the Teams Tournament, so why would he pair Brandon Hanna with Jader Paramo? Both competitors have had great showings on their own, but Hanna has shown he doesn’t want to work with anyone. If they managed to pull The Burning Droogs out of last place, then great. If not, then they’ll definitely live up to their faction name.

Jeannine the Machine catapulted The Usual Suspects out of last place with three points after TKOing Warfather. Ethan Erwin could continue this winning momentum next Thursday against Eric Zipper and into the Quarter-Finals against Tom. Samm Levine was smart to trade Jader Paramo and Ken Napzok for Ethan because he is a high level competitor that could go to the finals. The real question is will Andrew Ghai play like we have seen him play before in the Teams Tournament or will he be like he has been lately?

At stated last week, The Finstock Exchange was guaranteed at least three points in the Singles Title Match, but we didn’t know who would win the match. Would it be the GOAT or The Boss? It was an even match until The Betting Round where Ben Bateman was up five points. Ben continued gain a lead in The Speed Round as he got an additional point. Being down six point, Dan successfully answered all his Final Round questions. Unfortunately, Ben was able to correctly answer his three-point question but not his five-point question, costing him the match. Everyone was in disbelief at the outcome, even Mara Knopic who could be heard in the background. Even more shocking was Ben’s frustration with Tom Dagnino as a manager and is presumed to leave the faction next season

Much like what happened to Ben Bateman, Chance Ellison had the lead with his match against Liz Shannon Miller, who was only one or two point behind. In the Final Round, Chance and Liz answered their first two questions and were awarded the points. But when it came to the five-pointer, Liz scored the points while Chance did not. He was devastated from the loss since it happened several times before. With Chance no longer in the tournament, Adam Collins is the only competitor in Korruption to earn them points going forward. This will cause Korruption to fall behind from SWAG and The Finstock Exchange who have competitors in the Quarter-Finals.

[image error]

In the next week, Lon Harris and Paul Oyama will face Adams Collins and Jeff Sneider. If SWAG wins both matches, they’ll be up to six points, once again take first place, and have be the only faction that has three competitors in Quarter-Finals. Winston will finally be done dancing with Shannon until the Teams Tournament and will give Roxy another “L” for her trouble.

Despite Perri Nemiroff losing to Mark Reilly, The Quirky Mercs are far from done this season. Brendan Meyer is in the Quarter-Finals, William Bibbiani has his match against The Barbarian on Monday, Shazam’s Title Match against Korruption is on October 16th, and Perri will be back with Haleigh Foutch in the Teams Tournament as Witching Power. Coy Jandreau has managed his faction well in the back half of the season; maybe even earned a nomination for manager of the year if The Quirky Mercs overtake Korruption in the rankings.

So, who will be on top going into Spectacular V? The winning team will earn at least nine points for their faction, except for Witching Power and The Dungeon’s new team with Adam Wit and Eric Zipper. Both teams have a play-in match that will win two points. So if one of these teams wins the finals, their faction will earn eleven points. All we can foresee right now is that there are four horses in this points-race: The Finstock Exchange, SWAG, Korruption, and The Quirky Mercs. Everyone else is fighting for fifth place or lower.

Consider subscribing to the website to stay up-to-date with the Weekly Faction Forecast every Saturday during the season.