Thoughts on Pools

Like everyone else in the Qudditch world, I was tuned in to the Selection Saturday livestream. (until the sound went away, then I followed the twitter feed) I am pretty pleased with how the pools turned out. They seem even, for the most part, and should create some interesting matchups. Listening to the Eighth Man's breakdown of all the pools afterwards, I wanted to give my thoughts on the pools, so be watching, soon, for the "12 Days of Quidditch."

As mentioned on the Eighth Man, I think Pool 2 will be the easiest but I think one of those teams can advance to the Elite Eight. I think there are a lot of upset probabilities and teams that know how to win and win in dramatic fashion in that pool. (Skrewts, Penn State, RIT, Florida, Loyola)

Pool 3 is a pool of death physically. If I were Fleming, I wouldn't even go to the World Cup or beg to be moved to Division 2 on account of having to play A&M, one of the hardest hitting and hitting annoyingly legally, Michigan, Johns Hopkins, believed by many to be one of the dirtiest teams and NYU, who isn't too shabby. Hopefully the refs will keep things in hand.

Best player v. player matchup comes from Pool 4, I think. I can't wait to see the beating wonders of Asher Abramson against keeper Daniel Daughtry of BGSU.

Pool 6 is wide open, IMO and will tell us alot about which regions are the best and which are lacking.  For instance, Texas State will have to uphold the big expectations of the Southwest against MSU and Pitt and Geneseo will have to prove the Northeast's strength.

Boston vs. Villanova is obviously highly anticipated, but I prefer the games out of Pool 12. The round robin Miami, ASU and LSU will be interesting and I am willing to predict each team will go 1-1 in that round robin.

The international teams could be really weak. McGill and Carleton aren't going and have been replaced by two very mediocre Canadian teams, Toronto and Fleming. Right now, the international teams are so far behind the American teams. I bet every D2 team could beat TEC Quidditch and I don't see why those precious D1 spots don't go to teams that have played a game. TEC v. Villanova is going to be really, really ugly and is going to make a lot of people mad. I don't think the international teams are ready for the WC, with the exception of maybe the Canadian 3- McGill, Carleton, and Ottawa and teams like Paris should have to play in D1 their first year. Next year- give 'em an autobid to the WC but not before they've played real competition.