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Round Two of the Singles Tournament is over. The Quirky Mercs continue to make a comeback in the second half of the season as William Bibbiani defeated The Barbarian. Jeff Sneider took the win from Paul Oyama after Paul played a perfect game until he missed his five-point question. Korruption surpassed their forecasted points after Adam Collins knocked out Lon Harris. Ethan Erwin and Eric Zipper scrapped for a victory as they were tied going into the final round, but Ethan was able to advance into the Quarter-Finals.

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With the leaders now having a competitor each in the Quarter-Finals, this gives the RoxStars the opportunity they need to climb in the rankings. If The Quirky Mercs can maintain their momentum, they can eliminate SWAG and Korruption from gaining more points. Jeff Sneider still needs to win the tournament, but I believe he is a better competitor than Mark Reilly and can go to the Semi-Finals.

However, this opportunity for the RoxStars comes with a cost. The Quirky Mercs would score at least nine points (six for the Quarter-Finals and three in the Semi-Finals) and will be scratching at the leaders’ doorstep. But Adam Collins and Liz Shannon Miller have shown they are not to be underestimated. Both have defeated dominant players like Chance Ellison, John Rocha, and Lon Harris.

On a positive note, if either Bibbiani or Brendan loss their match, it won’t be a devastating blow to The Quirky Mercs. This is because one of them would have been out in the Semi-Finals anyway and, if they win the tournament, would be at forty-one points. What they cannot afford is for both of them to be eliminated from the tournament.

The Dungeon is out of the tournament after Eric Zipper lost his match, but he was able to keep up with Ethan, which not many can claim. Eric has displayed a great improvement since joining The Dungeon and we’ll see him again in the Teams Tournament starting on November 2nd. So, while they joined The Burning Droogs on the sidelines, The Dungeon might not be around them for much longer.

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Speaking of the Teams Tournament, the bracket has been released with the names of all the new teams:

Team NameCompetitorsThe Witching PowerPerri Nemiroff & Haleigh FoutchThe MisfitsAdam Witt & Eric ZipperDeceptionMarisol McKee & Adam CollinsCategory 9Jader Paramo & Brandon HannaThe Lethal WeaponsAndrew Ghai & Ethan Erwin

Each team name sounds great and matches their factions, except for Category 9. At first, I was confused at the reference, but then I remembered Jader Paramo’s nickname is The Hurricane. The Saffir-Simpson scale, the scale that measures hurricanes, goes up to five, but I can hear Ken saying, “They are goes to cause so much havoc in the Schmoedown.”

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Another thing announced this week was the Horror Free4All on October 30th with eighteen competitors. The winner will get three points for their faction. During the TriviaSD days, I pitched an article of having mini Free4Alls with ten competitors and the prize is something small, like entry into the tournaments. The purpose was to have a cost effective way to deliver a Free4All event to Chicago, Detroit, New York, and other cities across the country. Despite the article not getting picked up, I can’t help to wonder if this is The Chairman’s way of testing out this format to take it on the road (once they are able to, of course).

Even though this series is meant to forecast the upcoming matches for the week, I want to speculate on something I noticed about when the Teams Tournament. November 2nd is on a Monday, which caused me to think we’re still getting four matches a week. But if that’s true and Spectacular is happening in December, then there are going to be weeks in October and November where there are no matches. There are seventeen matches when accounting for the remaining matches in the Singles Tournament, Teams Tournament, Shazam vs Korruption Title Match (with no undercard, eighteen with one), and the Free4All.

Once again, this is me speculating and I could be wrong about this, but it appears we might be getting more matches after the tournaments are over. It could be just as likely that Spectacular will happen in November and the season ends early or we go to two matches per week. Until we know what is happening within the next two months, I am hesitant to say any faction is out of the points-race and avoiding another controversy within the community.

That will concluded on this week’s installment of the Weekly Faction Forecast. If you enjoyed it, please consider following the site to stay up-to-date with the forecasts every Saturday.