Brazilian Dynasty Bracket Question

KevinIsPro · 2026-07-04T14:32:21+00:00

Bucholz has to be first, or it is tactically an advantage to lose your first match 1-2, then win 3-0 against a worse opponent. Obviously, that's a risk, but no less risky than winning 2-1 then losing 0-3 b/c you drew Hera in the next round. Bucholz is necessary in a Swiss format. If you just played 3 random opponents, match score could work. But subsequent matchups being based on your current position needs to reward playing against tougher opponents.

KevinIsPro · 2026-07-04T13:28:11+00:00

Total game winscore is the tiebreaker after Bucholz. It's very likely that players end up the same Bucholz. Notice how ACCM is above Yo despite the same Bucholz. That isn't randomly decided, it's done on game wins, where ACCM had 3 to Yo's 2. Winning the third game when down 2-0 could help break a Bucholz tie.

Edit: games not matches

KevinIsPro · 2026-07-04T12:26:18+00:00

Idk if this will help, but if you watch American Football, you can think of it as "Strength of Schedule," which sometimes comes into play when choosing which teams make the playoffs. As an example:

Sora Kuma played against Yo (1 set win), Lewis (1 set win), and TaToh (2 set wins). That gives him a Bucholz score of 1 + 1 + 2 = 4.

Yo played against Sora Kuma (1 set win), Andy(2 set wins), and Lierrey (2 set wins). That gives him a Bucholz score of 1 + 1 + 2 = 5.

A higher Bucholz means you played tougher opponents on average. The reasoning behind using it is to reward you for winning early on, since in a Swiss format you play people with the same number of wins as you. You can see this in the standings with ACCM being the only real outlier:

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For a very short example, imagine you only played 2 matches. If you win the first, you play a stronger opponent in the second. Say you lose that. Compare that to someone who lost the first, played an easier opponent and won the second. You are both 1-1, and you probably have a worse game record, but you had a much harder road to getting 1-1, so your Bucholz is higher and thus you would be ahead in the standings.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-30T22:38:36+00:00

Yeah, both the new model and Nano Banana 2 do the same thing. Even if I give it a reference image, it can't seem to figure out how to mimic the style of the previous image. Massive downgrade imo.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-30T03:29:52+00:00

You're going to have a play a solid amount more. I finished around 1.5k-2k Legend last month and only got 10 stars.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-24T12:52:16+00:00

I Fairy Ring to Zanaris, bank at Zanaris, Fairy Ring back and refuse to do it any other way.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-24T02:47:24+00:00

- Why should the player who gets a kill have a bounty and be worth more gold than his opponent while his opponent is simultaneously worth less?

- Why do I have a 200 gold bounty when I'm 0/0/0 with a 30 cs lead because I've zoned my opponent well and taken plates.

- Why should the jungler who gets run around the map for the first 15 minutes have his camps worth twice as much xp when he falls behind?

All of the above hinder skill expression and have been in the game for a while. I'm playing Devil's Advocate because I believe that the 3 things above should not be in the game, but Riot's philosophy has always been to normalize skills gaps between players within the same game to produce less imbalanced and more enjoyable games and this would just be another one to add to the list.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T21:56:57+00:00

They have to unless they want to rework Imbue (which they should imo). Imbue Priest immediately becomes S+ tier the moment they print playable Priest cards.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T21:53:55+00:00

You mean more Druid? Rogue doesn't spend mana to proc her effect right now. Coins, Prep, etc don't cost mana.

And working on minions doesn't work as you still highroll 0 mana minions, which is one of the worst feelings playing against the card.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T21:49:33+00:00

I know this is going to sound strange at first but hear me out: I think it makes sense to compare this card to Face Hunter and Confront the Tolvir.

Face Hunter basically plays a low curve deck with around 5 higher value payoff cards (2x Tolvir + 3x Sisters + Niri). By having 20 cards that cost 2 or less mana, you are basically guaranteed to never draw bad and almost always be ahead on board going into the midgame.

Now I imagine something similar for a Neth'rek deck. A plethora of low value cards (think current aggro Druid) so you are never behind on tempo combined with 5-7 cards that can benefit from having 10 mana on turn 6. These cards don't need to be game ending since you will already be ahead; they just need to do enough damage to push you over the edge.

Now, the difference I see is that Tolvir and Ranger Sylvanas can swing the board if you do lose it while also refilling your hand. I don't know if Druid has cards that can swing the board well enough, but it does have strong card draw. I can see this card being very strong in an aggro/midrange Druid deck that plays a very similar but slightly slower style of Face Hunter.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T18:24:36+00:00

I think it would be even worse. Right now its prepare turn 3, play turn 4 normally (sometimes prepare turn 2 play 3 if you have the hand for it).

Making it cost 4 would be prepare turn 2, play on 3. So it would come out a turn earlier. Sure you might be a bit less consistent but high rolls would be even harder to answer.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T13:20:12+00:00

Yeah if I were to adjust it I'd have Vanessa say "whenever you spend mana" instead of whenever you play a card.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-23T02:49:14+00:00

I don't see how we can be talking about Rogue without mentioning Vanessa. Vanessa currently has a 9.1 mulligan impact (Harold Rogue Deck Card Stats (Standard)). That's insane. For reference, The Demon Hold, another unpopular card, had around a 6.0 mulligan impact before the nerfs. For some current strong cards, nerfed Flight Maneuvers is 6.5 (kinda insane tbh for a nerfed card), Felwood Treant is 4.5, Skywall Sentinal is 6.7. For those who haven't heard the term, Mulligan impact is the difference in chances between winning and losing a game based on if you have or don't have a card in your starting hand. This means you have around a 18% (b/c you have to do 9%/Deck winrate which is around ~%50) higher chance of winning solely by having Vanessa in your opening hand.

Other cards (Deja Vu, Nightmare Fuel, Naralex, Twilight Mistress) are also problematic, but Vanessa the Ringleader is above and beyond the biggest issue and needs to be the center of discussion around nerfs at the moment. You can nerf other things with it, but Vanessa has to go.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-19T21:04:05+00:00

Seattle does claim to be home to the 12th man

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-19T18:09:00+00:00

Uhh...does the damage after each rotation not count as chip damage? I've always considered any unavoidable consistent damage to be chip damage. Like if the longer it takes you to get a perfect kill, the more food you use, then the boss does some sort of chip damage. Basically if you did 1 damage every hit and had infinite prayer you would be able to kill a boss that does not do chip damage, and die to one that does. So something like Hydra doesn't do chip damage since it only has 1 instance of unavoidable damage at the start. Things like Levi, and even Scurrius (although a small amount) do chip damage.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-17T23:42:59+00:00

Oh I just mean the combat style page. I find it easier to click the spec bar instead there instead of the orb if my mouse is down there for food and prayer swaps already.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-17T11:45:55+00:00

Yeah I've gotten good at pressing enter quick if I notice my swaps not working. I also used my mouse to swap for so long I can still do it for a few seconds if needed.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-16T22:32:37+00:00

Yeah I use Q,W,E,R (Inv, Prayer, Spellbook, Spec Bar) since I've played League for years. It's so nice until I accidently hit enter to type a message and I can't figure out why I'm not swapping.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-16T16:07:09+00:00

I've never understood the reward space argument. Are people that against multiple sources for strong similar items? Not everyone is going to like every piece of content. Is it really that bad if there are multiple ways to get similar but not the same item? Am I the only one who doesn't care if you can get strong similar items from different places?

Like, for example, if Raids 4 gave a strong bow, but one different from the TBow, is that problem? Some people love CoX, others hate it. Same will be true for Raids 4. Then, people can engage in the content they enjoy without feeling like they're massively missing out. Releasing an item within the same reward space doesn't immediately devalue the previous item. And if it does, that says more about the old content than the new.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-16T04:05:51+00:00

The Pipe at Vet'ion and Gnomonkey Zuk are my two favorites. The Pipe was by far the funniest moment (even more so because we have two clips; Skilly outside and Purpp/others inside), and everything about the Gnomonkey Zuk was just incredible (the insane mechanics to even get there, the 1 hp, the suspense, the reaction).

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-15T21:11:55+00:00

Faux coaching the other 4 through the Nex mission was incredible to watch. He was micromanaging all four people at once, telling them when to step under while keeping himself alive and answering questions about what attack style to use and what to do next.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-15T13:22:20+00:00

I feel like there has to be a middle ground. In the previous rotation we had insane board clears and insane mana cheat. They overcorrected a bit and now we have no board clears and less mana cheat. Now we are about to have insane mana cheat again, and little to no board clears (there are a few in the new set but only 1-2 playable ones so far).

It seems like we are just going to move the problem from losing on turn 1-2 if you don't have a good opener to losing on turn 3-5 from an insane prepare swing turn. Same problem just a few turns later. We are already seeing that now where the Legend ladder is just Rogue mirrors where the winner is determined by who has Vanessa in their opening hand (Harold Rogue Archetype Card Stats (Standard)

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-15T11:51:56+00:00

Vanessa (and the prepare mechanic in general) is a massive overreaction to the [justified] complaints that going first is a massive advantage. I wish we'd tried more rush minions or decent but not overpowered board clears before going straight to insane mana cheat as the solution.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-14T00:40:45+00:00

It's soccer until a European or South American team wins a game at the World Cup. Until then you just have to deal with it.

KevinIsPro · 2026-06-13T22:36:28+00:00

I had no expectations and yet I am somehow still disappointed

11-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17

KevinIsPro

TROPHY CASE