I love thinking about Schmoedown brackets. The science behind it has always fascinated me. Because the Schmoedown is a combination of seeding and entertainment. So when making a bracket you cannot just purely decide the matchups on seeding since that’s not a Schmoedown is. But also you cannot ignore seeding and decide the matchups on pure entertainment since that is not fair. If you have a better record then you should have some sort of advantage within a tournament and there should be a disincentive for managers to send competitors/teams with worse records into these tournaments. So my goal with these brackets is to maximize both entertainment and fairness. Create a bracket that is not only fair seeding-wise but is also full of exciting and entertaining 1st and 2nd round matchups with enough history/storylines to maximize entertainment. It’s important to only think about the 1st round matchups of the bracket but also the possible 2nd round matchups. Finals are less important to worry about because any two competitors will be entering finals with momentum and big wins and there is no result where finals are not entertaining. So this is Schmoedown Bracketology, me sharing the brackets I created for each upcoming tournament with the reasoning behind each 1st and 2nd round matchup.
EXCLUSIONS
- Final Exam
- There is confirmed to be one more teams title match after Shazam! vs KOrruption. It is assumed Final Exam, Danger Zone, and Lightning Time will be a part of this title path. I assume whoever gets a title shot out of this path will be left out of the tournament, while other teams will be allowed to be chosen for the tournament. Since Final Exam has seniority over Danger Zone and Lightning Time, I will assume they will come out of the title path. The bracket will be updated once we get more details on this path and how it affects the teams tournament.
- Rushmore
- On Any Given Schmoeday, John Rocha said that he does not believe Rushmore will be in the teams tournament because he wants to give the Exchange rookies a shot.
- Deception
- If the faction KOrruption has a choice between the team KOrruption and Deception, given Deception’s 2-3 record it doesn’t make sense to choose them over the team KOrruption. Mike Kalinowski and Chance Ellison have the experience and have been more successful than Deception. With KOrruption going for the faction title, they need to send in their A team. Plus, Shannon Barney seemed to confirm on our Collision After Party that KOrrutpion will be the team in the tournament.
- Shazam!
- Obviously, they’re the champions so they wouldn’t be in the tournament.
- The Outsiders
- With an 0-2 record, The Outsiders are guaranteed a tough first round matchup because of it. It makes more sense for The Den to send another team since they have enough talent in singles/teams to make it work.
- Chaos Theory
- Even with their perfect win against Pop Quiz, it is tough to imagine a world where Chaos Theory is chosen insteda of the Odder Couple of Jeff Sneider and Jeannine the Machine.
MY BRACKET
EXPLANATIONS OF MY FIRST-ROUND MATCHUPS
- KOrruption vs Midterms
- I always enjoy when Eric Zipper and Kalinowski face off. It’s one of the most underrated rivalries in the game. The Midterms took Danger Zone to their five pointer, so let’s see if they can do the same to KOrruption. This is as interesting as a first round KOrruption match can get since it’s unlikely anyone expects KOrruption to lose in the first round.
- Press Room vs Odder Couple
- Continuing the Roxy Striar vs Coy Jandreau rivalry. Sneider just lost the teams belt to the Quirky Mercs and is now facing another Quirky Mercs team in round one. Trivia wise, the matchup seems even. Both teams have the potential to win the tournment. Might be the most exciting first round matchup trivia wise.
- Lightning Time vs Mark Reilly/Alonso Duralde
- I like the duality this matchup offers. Ethan Erwin and Liz Shannon Miller, two great singles players that have been inconsistent in singles. This is also a chance for Miller to get redemption for her loss against Reilly.
- Danger Zone vs Barbarian/Lieberman
- There will already be a lot of pressure on Danger Zone not to lose in the first round. This will be especially true if they are facing the Finstock Exchange in the first round. Fueling the Exchange vs Dungeon rivalry within the tournaments just makes sense. It’ll be especially interesting to this part of the rivalry, Dan Murrell/Ben Bateman vs the Barbarian. We have not seen much of Batemen or Murrell interacting with Barbarian since the split. There are a lot of interesting potential storylines if the rivalry between Murrell/Bateman and The Barbarian is built up. Added with the fact this match could greatly decide the faction championship, this matchup becomes a must watch, and for a first round matchup, that’s great.
MY POTENTIAL SECOND-ROUND MATCHUPS
- KOrruption vs Odder Couple
- This would be the first time Kalinowski and Sneider faced each other since FLASH AHHH. It would be great to not only build up the Kalinowski vs Sneider rivalry, but Jeannine also has history with Kalinowski. Add to that Roxy vs Shannon dynamic and we have a great Semi Finals match.
- KOrruption vs Press Room
- If KOrruption is in this tournament then they lost to Shazam! and this is their chance to get vengeance against the Mercs. On the other hand if Press Room can pull off the upset then both Horowitz and Nemiroff careers are greatly changed for the better. Possibly this could lead to Horowitz and Nemiroff becomes stars within the MTS.
- Midterms vs Press Room
- No matter who wins we have a new exciting team going to the finals. There’s a lot of parallels between the two teams that makes this matchup interesting. Both teams lost in the 1st teams’ tournament this season to a team that would go onto the finals. Both had to take down a veteran within the division to get to the semis (Kalinowski and Sneider). Both contain 2 promising players which have not broken out yet. Even the managers (Coy and Winston) are similar.
- Midterms vs Odder Couple
- There’s a couple of angles this match can be presented as. Possibly Sneider looking to avenge his loss to the Harris Brothers by beating Jonathan Harris here. Or maybe instead we focus on Jeannine vs Zipper, which player whose record doesn’t reflect their ability, both 3 division players, will finally be given the opportunity to breakout within a division. Whether the focus is on Harris vs Sneider or Jeannine vs Zipper or both we can easily get some interesting promo heading into this match.
- Lightning Time vs Danger Zone
- This would continue the Erwin vs Murrell rivalry which so far has been great and is going to be very relevant no matter the result of the upcoming singles title match between the two. Batemen would get a chance to avenge his loss to Erwin in singles while Miller would also get a chance to avenge her previous loss to Batemen. There is a lot of story and history between these four players. With Lightning Time coming off a win against Danger Zone, there is a lot of pressure for Danger Zone not to lose twice against this team. Danger Zone will be motivated which will make for a great match. Not to mention that trivia-wise, this is a dream. Two super teams, where whoever might win would seem like an unstoppable force while whoever would lose would end up having a disappointing season given the talent. All around aperfect semi-finals match.
- Lightning Time vs Barbarian/Lieberman
- Erwin brought all these players into the league. Miller, Barbarian, and Liberman come from Erwin’s friend group and then ended up joining the league. With the real-life history these players have, it would be bound to make a tense yet fun match. For Barbarian to step out of Erwin’s shadow and reach a tournament final is a big deal, and to potentially beat Erwin to do so is a huge deal.
- Reilly/Duralde vs Barbarian/Lieberman
- Both these teams would have beaten perceived super teams to reach the semi-finals. Both would be promising new teams and whoever would be able to reach the finals would likely be a staple of the teams division for the upcoming years. A huge match for the history of the teams. Storyline-wise, I think it would be fascinating to see Reilly face off against the Finstock Exchange given his history with Gucci. For Mulligan, this would provide an opportunity to get back at Gucci for the multiple important losses he gave her.
- Reilly/Duralde vs Danger Zone
- Given Batemen and Reilly’s history in teams this would be a must watch. Also I think it will interesting to see how Murrell and Reilly would interact given they both left the Finstock Exchange but under different circumstances. Either way, after Who’s The Boss split up, to see Reilly and Bateman on their new teams competing in a semi finals would be too perfect.
MY MOST INTERESTING POSSIBLE FINAL MATCHUPS
- KOrruption vs Danger Zone
- Anytime we get Kalinowski vs Batemen always leads to an entertaining match. Add that with Murrell’s history with KOrruption and the pressure on Danger Zone to not lose to KOrruption twice and you’d get a fantastic teams final.
- Odder Couple vs Lightning Time
- Adding on to the underrated Sneider vs Erwin rivalry. Both would be newer teams looking to cement their place in history. Sneider trying to win another title with a new team, Jeannine trying to win her first title, Miller winning trying to win her first belt, or Erwin trying to win his first teams belt.
- Danger Zone vs Midterms
- Who would’ve thought the 1st round match from last tournament could be the finals of the next. Would be a fantastic story.
- KOrruption vs Lightning Time
- Erwin vs Kalinowski can be a very interesting dynamic which hasn’t been explored yet. Kalinowski’s intensity vs Erwin’s chill is something I want to see. And Ellison would be facing Erwin and Miller, both singles players which beat him in previous singles tournaments.
- Press Room vs Barbarian/Lieberman
- I always love the Quirky Mercs vs the Finstock Exchange dynamic. The ultimate face faction vs the ultimate heel faction. All the promising competitors and characters within the match would make this a great finals.
- Odder Couple vs Duralde/Reilly
- Sneider and Reilly are two of the greatest teams players of all time. Given the history between the two from Patriots vs Wolves of Steel and Odd Couple vs Who’s the Boss, that alone would give Nerd Chronic a lot to work with. Either way, Jeannine or Duralde, both players whose records do not showcase their talent, would get the opportunity to fight for a title at Spectacular.
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