Monthly "TimSight": SINGLES TOURNAMENT EDITION (Patreon)

The Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament starts TOMORROW and triviasd.com's very own Tim Sim is here to take an in depth look at this year's competitors.

The Insight: Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament Breakdown

By: Tim Sim

Hello again and welcome to this month’s edition of The Insight. We are now just mere days away from the arrival of the tournaments, where competitors from all over the rankings of the Singles and Teams Divisions compete match-by-match, fighting to have one more day in their season. For the winners, they will be rewarded with a much-deserved title shot against the champions at “The Grand Showcase of the Schmoedown,” Schmoedown Spectacular. The finale of “The Magic Season.”

For this edition, we take a look at the brackets and the competitors of the Singles Tournament. To the recently joined fans of the Schmoedown, it’s easy to overlook the significance of this specific tournament. The entire Schmoedown began with this tournament in 2014 with people proving to show what movie knowledge they know from the top of their heads. The success of that tournament helped paved the way for the establishment of the league format of the Schmoedown. Without it, there would be no Movie Trivia Schmoedown to witness. Now, starting next week on August 26, sixteen competitors will battle in tourney fashion to see who will be the one to challenge for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown Championship at Spectacular. What makes this group of competitors unique is that it has the most impressive mix of Schmoedown veterans, top rookies, those who naturally know their movies, and those who studied passionately to excel in the Schmoedown. This wide mix of different competitors makes this Singles Tournament the most exciting and random one in its history. Anything can truly happen in the weeks to come.

As we look at the brackets for the Singles Tournament, it’s really interesting with what the matchups are shaped based on the decisions of our “Tournament Commissioner,” Robert Meyer Burnett. Here’s how the seed rankings look like based on these matchups:

1. Mark Reilly

2. Ethan Erwin

3. John Rocha

4. Lon Harris

5. Ben Bateman

6. Mike Kalinowski

7. William Bibbiani

8. Witney Seibold

9. Brendan Meyer

10. Chance Ellison

11. Jeannine The Machine

12. Liz Shannon Miller

13. Paul Preston

14. Rachel Silvestrini

15. Haleigh Foutch

16. Stacy Howard

While mostly logical, there are some who are placed too high (i.e. Bateman) and too low (i.e. Jeannine). Then again, it’s based on how Burnett sees fit.

Among the returning veterans are two of the Horsemen in Mark Reilly and John Rocha. Both competitors have been in tournaments before, but both have never won the tournament. For Reilly, the furthest he went was the semi-finals, and for Rocha his furthest point was the Finals. However, it was when both were in the 2016 Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Tournament. Now, the game is changed. For both of them, the question that needs to be asked is do they have more left in the tank to propel them deep into the tournament and finally win the title shot at Spectacular? While Reilly has Lon Harris, Brendan Meyer, and Liz Shannon Miller to contend with; Rocha is in a stacked side of strong contenders. We’ll see how far they can go, because the league around them is getting more fiercer than ever.

Some of the first timers that we will see compete in this tournament are Brendan Meyer, Liz Shannon Miller, Paul Preston, and Haleigh Foutch. These four have shown this season to be no slouches. They have the skills and the knowledge to potentially go deep and cause upsets throughout the brackets. What makes the Ultimate Schmoedown Tournaments special is its uncanny ability to produce new stars and revive long-standing ones this late in seasons. This is how we got Team Action, John Rocha, Samm Levine, and even Mike Kalinowski in the special Innergeekdom Tournament last year. Among these four, if one of them goes deep then he or she will be given large amounts of fame. Brendan and Liz are in my opinion the two that have the potential to break out and shine in the tournaments. If any of them go into at least the Semi-Finals, you cannot afford to look away from the brilliance these two.

Also, among the eight 1st Round matches of the tournament, two of them will take place at the next two live events. The 1st Round matchup of Ethan Erwin and Haleigh Foutch will take place August 31 in the New York borough of Manhattan, and the 1st Round matchup of William Bibbiani and Chance Ellison will take place September 14 in Tempe, Arizona. From what we have seen already in last year’s 1st Round live match of the Anarchy Tournament, the atmosphere of a live audience intensifies a tournament match. It brings pressure, hype, inspiration, and excitement. These four competitors who will start their tournament journeys in live matches have already experienced facing a live audience before, making these matches much more exciting to see. With the live crowd, anything can happen because now you have to factor in the ability to perform live with no hitch. This will make bracket predictions more carefully thought out. Also, the Ultimate Schmoedown Singles Finals will be in the Orlando live event, so don’t forget to know who between the two predicted finalists can perform with the pressure of a World Cup-esque atmosphere.

Now to the two individuals I would like to highlight. The first being last year’s Singles Tournament winner Ethan Erwin. What he did last year was very memorable. In his rookie year, he was able to take the tournament by storm and narrowly edge out Clarke Wolfe to win the tournament and then the singles title from John Rocha at Spectacular. Now, he returns to try it again and get his next opportunity to headline Spectacular for the singles title. No one has been able to win tournaments in consecutive years, especially since no one other than Samm winning both tournaments in 2017. He will be facing the toughest contenders for his journey through the brackets, so can he come back with that tenacity he showed last season? As long as he kept up with preparations since his triple threat loss to Bibbiani, he has a good shot.

As for the second individual I will highlight, he is perhaps the competitor to watch out of the sixteen that will compete. The reason being that he is on a quest, a quest that has taken a slight detour since his costly mistake against Jeff Sneider for the title shot in New York. It’s none other than Mike Kalinowski. If nothing else, all eyes will be him trying to become “#Mikey3Belts” in this tournament. 

The reason he got to this point instead of facing Paul Oyama for the Singles Championship in New York is due to his mistake in the third round against Jeff Sneider. He blurted out only one-half of the answer, that being Flash Gordon, costing him an easier path to complete his “#Mikey3Belts” mission. Now, he will be in the tournament, on the side with the very best competitors in the Singles Division. It has grown considerably harder, with the journey now being five matches to get to the Singles Champion at Schmoedown Spectacular and on top of defending his Team and Innergeekdom titles there as well. He has the enthusiasm and drive for sure, but his quest to be “#Mikey3Belts” before the end of the season is now a daunting gauntlet.

With that out of the way, I conclude this month’s Insight with my brackets and how I predict the tournament will go. What do you think? Comment below and discuss your thoughts, brackets, and predictions.