The "TimSight": Ultimate Schmoedown TEAMS TOURNAMENT Edition! (Patreon)

Hey Schmoedown Patrons! Emma here - Apologies on this going up a bit late. I thought I was going to be able to post it this morning but, alas! Life had other plans. Anyone else super messed up by too many Halloween events and Daylight Savings? Anyhow, obviously y'all already know the result of the FIRST match up but there's still a LOT to speculate about! Thanks to Tim as always for writing these and enjoy!!

The Insight: Ultimate Schmoedown Teams Tournament Preview

By Tim Sim

Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of “The Insight.” I first want to apologize for not providing last month’s issue due to taking care of personal things first along with finding a new outlet for my coverage of the Movie Trivia Schmoedown. There will be an extra one coming in the following months to make it up, but for this issue we will take a look at the next Ultimate Schmoedown Tournament. With the Singles Tournament pretty much wrapped up and the finals between Ben Bateman and William Bibbiani taking place at this year’s Schmoedown Spectacular, we turn now to this upcoming tournament that showcases what has been the most stacked Schmoedown Teams Division in the history of this league. Here’s what the seedings look like according to the arrangements of “Tournament Commissioner” Robert Meyer Burnett:

1. The Odd Couple
2. Who’s The Boss
3. The Family
4. Time Machine
5. The Loony Bin
6. Evil Geniuses
7. Loose Cannons
8. Shazam!
9. The Movie Guys
10. Crimson Fury
11. The Paddington Two
12. Self-Righteous Brothers
13. Scream Queens
14. Wildberries
15. Inky and The Brain
16. Only Stupid Answers

Overall, a reasonably solid ranking of these teams going into the tournament. The ones to look out for are of course these two teams: The Odd Couple and Who’s The Boss. The duos of Sneider-Andreyko and Reilly-Bateman have shown to be complete powerhouses, particularly with The Odd Couple being the team to successfully take the belts from The Shirewolves earlier this season. However, it’s not just those two: Time Machine with the tandem teamwork of Ethan Erwin and Jeannine “The Machine” that should not be underestimated, Loose Cannons where current Singles Champion Paul Oyama and Eric Zipper can score well, and Shazam’s Bibbiani and Meyer with the most unique and successful team chemistry on display. These five teams are what I see to be the ones that can win this tournament and challenge for the team titles against Murrell and Rocha of The Founding Fathers at Spectacular.

However, given how competitively insane this division is, there are several dark horses that can surprise everyone. The first one being in my opinion The Paddington Two. Matt and Alonso have been doing decent this season with their team campaign, but they are due for a long tournament run and I have a feeling that this is could be their year. Another being Crimson Fury, where Stacy Howard will be assisted by Tim Franco. If she can get back that feeling she had in her latest singles upset over Mark Reilly, this team with the capability of Franco’s skills could shock everyone. Whether or not they’re still part of KOrruption due to Ken and Grace being absent in Orlando is another story to talk about later on. The biggest dark horse in my mind is “Video” Drew and Tom of The Loony Bin. In their first match against Loose Cannons, these two showed how scary good they can be. Particularly, the intriguing new Schmoedown Pro in Tom. He ran through Round Two with shockingly-clean precision like it was nothing. They made Oyama and Zipper work their hardest in the final round to take the win. Make no doubt about it, The Loony Bin is the dark horse that can take it all.

As for the other teams, it depends on how well their team chemistry is. Marc Edward Heuck makes his second Schmoedown appearance in this tournament alongside Whitney Seibold as the Self-Righteous Brothers. It has been almost a year between his appearances, leading to speculation about if he can get on the same page with Whitney and earn his first Schmoedown win. Also, the Scream Queens’ Haleigh and Kalyn will make their teams tournament debut as well. While Haleigh has shown that she is a pro to not underestimate, it all comes down to Kalyn providing the assistance for those critical moments. Inky and The Brain’s Rachel and Devon will have to show the crucial team chemistry and not rely solely on their individual strengths to get past a mighty team in Who’s The Boss. Rachel Silvestrini has shown her might in the Singles Tournament, but will she and Devon be able to cooperate and go deep in the Teams Tournament? As for Only Stupid Answers, they are coming from almost upsetting The Family despite DJ having to pull an audience member (Robert Adams of Cinefanatics) to assist the team when Sam was sick. The question for them against the top-seeded Odd Couple is this: who will this team comprise of: DJ and Sam, Sam and Robert, or DJ and Robert? It’s an interesting situation they are in. Finally, The Movie Guys make their Teams Tournament debut with Paul Preston coming from an impressive run in the Singles Tournament. He will show up, but he needs his partner Adam Witt to be clutch against Shazam!. If they can work together well and put up a great performance similar to their near-loss against Inky and The Brain, then they have a fighting chance.

Now, here are two top stories that I see coming into this Teams Tournament. The first being the sudden shakeup of Evil Geniuses. With the sudden departure of JTE (who in real life is moving away to start anew), the Evil Geniuses have become vulnerable. Lon and Jonathan Harris find themselves in a problematic situation, but Lon has his new partner to replace JTE: Simon Thompson. Simon is a film journalist that has written publications under such major companies like E! News, Reuters, Forbes, and IGN; showcasing what should be a new Schmoedown Pro that has the movie knowledge to compete against the very best. So while Evil Geniuses are stable despite no longer being a superteam, they will have a tough task to do against The Paddington Two with Simon. If he can complement Lon’s weaknesses, they can make it work. 

As for my second top story, this regards where “Tournament Commissioner” Robert Meyer Burnett placed his team The Family in the brackets. Thanks to Drew McWeeny’s victory in the second Manager Bowl at Collision, Burnett has the luxury of making the brackets. He believes that Andrew Ghai and Drew McWeeny have a shot by facing against The Wildberries, a fan-favorite team for the past two years. I find this questionable but not because of the advantage of making the brackets. It’s questionable of how this is perceived as an “easy victory.” Yes, Josh Macuga and Eliot Dewberry may not be the top pros of the Schmoedown, but you cannot underestimate their tenacity to make their opponents sweat. They have proven it this September at a live Schmoedown Throwdown broadcast against Late to The Party. If the answers start going their way, Josh and Eliot are not going to give it up. They have that potential to pull upsets with Josh’s trademark guessing. In short, this could either be The Family’s sly move or their downfall. Should The Family win, don’t expect their road to be easy as they have to face quite possibly The Paddington Two and their toughest opponents on their side: Who’s The Boss.

In summary, this tournament will be intense and surprising. There are so many top teams that can win it all and face The Founding Fathers for their belts at this year’s Schmoedown Spectacular. My picks for this tournament are reasonable, but I am not fully confident that it will be like this. How about yours?