First Round results

"I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying."
~ Michael Jordan

Finally, after eleven days of essentially preliminaries, the real tournament is about to begin. The tiebreakers have been sorted out and the matchups have been determined. The top four seeds: The King, Sigurd, Visorslash, and Ishmael, have all earned a well-deserved rest. Today, at least, the pressure is not on them. Instead, it is on the eight men who failed at what the other four were able to accomplish: securing one of the top four seeds. As a result, their path to eternal glory is all the much harder for it.

The storylines, of course, are out in full force. Can any of the players, especially those seeded in the double-digits, start a run today and knock out the favorites? Can atheotes and Zaccino, who almost always achieved the same exact results until the final day, both get hot and meet up in a later round? Can edse or BSmith, two of the lesser-heralded players in the tournament, top each other and go onto greater things? And, of course, what will happen with the greatest X-factor in the entire tournament, issaikhaan, now that all bets are off?

For the first time all tournament, the oddsmakers have previous head-to-head data to go on when determining the numbers. As it turns out, of the matches today, three of the higher seeds defeated their opponents during the round robin, with only #10 Zaccino prevailing against #7 classical_hero on Day 6. Everyone in the audience will soon find out if this feat is repeated today, the higher seeds all win out, or if there are further upsets this time around.

Meanwhile, as a part of the heightened atmosphere, the audience is as loud as it has been all tournament, although they finally do get quiet as the referee walks out, acknowledges the contestants, and raises his hand in the air.

"Rock... paper... scissors... shoot!"

#5 Montmorency vs. #12 issaikhaan
This match is actually off the board; the oddsmakers are refusing to accept bets. It's understandable to see why. After twelve straight matches of throwing nothing but Rock, issaikhaan is finally playing for real. As a result, nobody, including Montmorency, quite knows what to expect from the #12 seed. Monty's admirable 6 points, including wins in four out of his last five matches, means absolutely nothing. However, it seems like karma has a stake in this match. Monty throws Paper, hoping for the best... and sees that khaan has, for the eighteenth straight time this tournament, has thrown Rock. He (along with everyone else in the tournament) breathes a huge sigh of relief. After the match, in the press conference, khaan reveals that he was going to throw Paper next should there have been an initial tie.
Montmorency advances

#6 atheotes vs. #11 LazyMcCrow
Redemption. In a word, that's what atheotes is looking for in this knockout round. In the very first tournament, atheotes was the #1 seed heading into the final day of the round robin phase. He ended up losing to Andres, tumbling to the #4 seed, and then lost to the eventual champion, #5 CountArach in the first round. Wracked with disappointment, atheotes walked away from the game for a while and sat out the second tournament. Now, however, he's back, and although his tournament has been marred by inconsistency and overshadowed by his weird connection with Zaccino, he's ready to go on a run. It's very possible it could start here. atheotes after all has logged a 5-0-1 record against people seeded lower than him in the tournament (though he doesn't like the mention the 0-5-0 he went against the top five seeds), including a victory against LazyMcCrow on Day 1. However, it looks like redemption will have to wait another day. After both initially throw Rock, it is plucky #11 seed Lazy that ends up moving on with a victorious throw of Scissors, defeating atheotes' Paper. Lazy will have a mammoth task ahead of him; the undefeated #1 seed The King lies in wait.
LazyMcCrow advances

#7 classical_hero vs. #10 Zaccino
Zaccino was able to score a victory against classical_hero on Day 6, which means despite the seeding disparity he is listed as the slight favorite to win the match. He sees that atheotes has been knocked out and, smiling, is looking to separate himself between his longtime scoring clone for good. The oddsmakers, though, should have perhaps been looking at the greater trends. classical, after having a miserable second half of the round robin, finally turned it around on Day 11 with an impressive victory over #3 Visorslash, who had a lot to play for. Both players start out with Paper. However, perhaps sensing that Zaccino is going to stick with Paper for as long as it takes, classical adjusts and throws Scissors, taking the victory. It seems like the classical_hero from the early part of the tournament is re-emerging, unluckily for all the players remaining. Meanwhile, Zaccino can't help but shake his head and laugh. It is all too fitting that he and atheotes were eliminated in the same round.
classical_hero advances

#8 edse vs. #9 BSmith
By definition, 8-9 matches are toss-ups, and this one is no exception. Even though edse did defeat BSmith in the round robin, their match was all the way back on Day 2 and really not all that relevant to their current streaks. Evening this out, BSmith has the slightly better tournament resume as he flat-out defeated #3 Visorslash on Day 9 of the round robin and, most impressively, fought #1 The King to one of his two draws on Day 6. Perhaps fittingly considering their seedings and exact same point totals during the round robin, the first throw is not enough to decide things as both throw Rock. As the crowd gets worked up in a frenzy as they wait for things to be decided, the players take a step back and analyze each other for a moment. In the end, though, it seems that head-to-head results prevail over tournament resume as edse's Scissors cut through BSmith's Paper. The two shake hands respectfully before BSmith walks off for his postmatch press conference. edse, meanwhile, stays onstage. His run in the tournament gets to continue.
edse advances

Interestingly enough, this is the second time in a row where the #6 seed has been upset in the first round. Perhaps you guys should have been trying to avoid that one instead of the #5.

Congratulations to the four players who advanced, as well as to the ones who lost for their great efforts. The real challenge for these four begins next round, as they get to play the top four seeds in the tournament for the right to advance to the semi-finals.

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It is now Round 2!

Round 2 matchups:

#1 The King vs. #11 LazyMcCrow
#2 Sigurd vs. #8 edse
#3 Visorslash vs. #7 classical_hero
#4 Ishmael vs. #5 Montmorency