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.