red_white_my_view wrote:Queen of Diamonds wrote:Hey boys mind if a lady plays in your sandbox. I just love this site it is so easy to figure out who if from what teams. In case some of you geniuses have not figured it out there is a search feature that lets you go back and view all of your posts. When you mention your team good or bad in 87% of your posts it is easy to figure it out. Anyway, on to my thoughts abot this weekend. It does look like the top 1/2 has more quality teams than the bottom half. The best early round matchup will be Longhorns vs Bandits. A very good team will drop down to the losers bracket after this one. I dont see where the Peppers have a cakewalk. I think they will have their hands full with Tx Force and then if they get by them will probably lose to Fury. 96 GLory seems to have a good draw for the first couple of games. Not real familiar with them just going on club reputation. The real crime of this whole tourney is after 8:00 am on Saturday either the Fusion or Thunder is going to be in the losers bracket. This is a toss up as well. I read on here where somebody said Fusion has a key injury. If that is the case then Thunder might have a chance. Haven't seem the Diamonds play and it looks like there are mixed reports out there but they look like they got a favorable draw. Kruzers and TRH should put on a good show early for bragging rights to top 97 team in the tournament. Here's my take on the 4 teams to make it to the 10:00 games on Saturday night.
I like TRH till the 4:45 game
Fusion/Thunder/97 Glory all look like good teams - tough draw for all of these teams. If healthy I'll take Fusionto be there at 10:00. If not its REAL close and I would go with Thunder on a coin flip
Longhorns and Bandits in a battle of the titans. Whoever wins this will EASILY make it to 10:00. Again on a coin flip I take Bandits. ***** Whoever wins this game will be in the Top 3 guaranteed *****
So Thunder and Bandits battle it out at 10:00 in the top 1/2
Peppers will be tested with Force and this could be my upset pick of the tourney. However, I will stick with the odds and take Peppers until 4:45.
Fury should cakewalk to the 4:45 matchup with Peppers - I like Fury making it to 10:00 in this one. Whoever loses this matchup will not make it past the 8:00 am game on Sunday and therefore will not finish in the Top 5.
Diamonds, after using up all their money to pay off officials, should make it to 6:30 with a matchup against Austins Finest. On reputation alone I will take the Diamonds to meet up with Fury at 10:00 in the bottom half.
Bandits will make it to the 11:30 game. If they are the Diamonds of old then they should face the Bandits. If not, then a showdown between Fury and Bandits guaranteeing both of these teams a spot in the final 3.
Finally, my final 3 would be
Bandits
Diamonds
Fury
Although I really like the Longhorns as well. Too close to call. I really think Houston will have 2 of the Top 3 with N Tx the final spot.
Well, I didn't put this much thought in it. After all, someone came on here some time back and said we were all idiots anyway

I like 2 0f your top 3 and since there are only 3 places my other pick will be between Longhorns and Thunder.
I think the loser of the Fusion/Thunder game and the Bandits/Longhorns game will both have a very hard time finishing top 3. The road back through the loser's bracket for the Fusion/Thunder loser will look something like this:
Sting or Finest, then
Probably Riptide, then
Probably Austin Stars, then
Bombers, Kaos, or Ice, then
Fury, Bombers or Peppers then
Thunder, Bandits, or Longhorns
That's a tough road to take for any team. One bad game in just about any of these match ups and you are done.
The road back for the Longhorns/Bandits loser will be even tougher. Something like this:
Storm, Shock or Young Legends, then
Bombers or Force, then
Finest or Sting, then
Peppers or Fury, then
Thunder/Fusion or Bandits/Longhorns, then
Fury,Peppers or Diamonds
Or something along those lines (could be a little off, I did it pretty quickly). Not saying it can't be done, but would be very very tough!!!
I think the winner of the two previously mentioned early round match ups should both be "final four" in the winner's bracket. If the Diamonds are as advertised, they should be one of the final four as well. The Finest, Sting and Riptide are good teams but if the Diamonds are what the folks from North Texas say they are, these teams should not pose too much of a problem for them. The top half of the bottom half of the bracket I think is the toughest to pick. The Bombers and the Force could both knock off the Peppers and Fury if things fall right. I know the Bombers beat the Fury at the Bombers Tournie. If the Peppers make it by the Force/Bombers match up, then Fury/Peppers match up is pretty even.
With all of that being said, here are my predictions for the final 4 (of the winner's bracket):
Thunder, Bandits, Fury and Diamonds
Here are my predictions for the 2 teams left standing in the loser's bracket (before the winner's bracket semi-final losers drop down):
Peppers and Bombers
Then Bandits over Thunder and Diamonds over Fury (Diamonds and Bandits are in)
Then Fury over Bombers and Peppers over Thunder (Thunder's ace runs out of gas here)
Then for the final spot Peppers over Fury (so they split their games, which they do a lot)
So Diamonds, Bandits and Peppers top 3. But in reality I think 10 or 12 teams have a legitimate shot at top 3 if they play well and have some things go right for them.
Teams that are under the radar that are capable of pulling an upset or two:
Red Hots, Riptide, Ice and Kaos
I think a lot of these games are going to be really close and could go either way. This is no doubt the best Texas team tournament of the year, with the only top team in Texas (that I am aware of) that's not here is the Aces. If they held this on back to back weekends, there's a good chance that all 3 of the top 3 would be different than the weekend before (so why did I even try to do predictions???).
Everyone please be safe driving to San Antonio and I know I am looking forward to the best weekend for 12U Texas softball of the year!!!