Now that the fields in Asia and North America have been whittled to seven and eight teams, respectively, it’s time to see who the numbers are picking to win the last tournament of the season before the big playoffs! And I know this is going to seem like a huge surprise, but Shanghai is the heavy favorite to come out on top in its playoff bracket:

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But if you look beyond Shanghai, you see something odd. The three first-round matches are basically toss-ups, with two being practical coin flips and Chengdu winning its match just 60% of the time. And oddly, it’s the #7 seed, Seoul, which has the second-best odds (after Shanghai) of making it to the finals. That’s because Seoul has the fourth-best SAMP, but #2 and #3 are the two teams that will have to face Shanghai in round two. Unlucky!

Let’s take a look at how the NA bracket shapes up:

[table “128” not found /]

Here’s where Paris‘s easy schedule comes back to bite them. The Eternal aren’t rated very highly because of it and seem like a relatively weak team overall. Remember that SAMP takes the entire season into account, and while Paris has looked good over the past two months, so have San Francisco and Philadelphia — and they’ve also looked good the rest of the season, giving them the edge. Then again, I had Paris at just 4.1% odds to win last time, so anything can happen!

Just a short post tonight, since we’re only five hours from the first match. Here’s to a great tournament!