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The single biggest factor that affects the matchups is the format of the tournament and we still don't know what it's going to be. I talked about this a little while ago in one of the chapter threads from the angle of comparing this tournament to the two previous ones. The one in Vaizel had 8 participants and thus needed 7 matches to arrive at a single winner, whereas the one hosted by Drole and Gloxinia had 32 participants fighting in pairs and would have therefore required 15 matches for one of them to win, plus perhaps a duel between the team members to decide who takes the prize. Both tournaments ended prematurely, the first one after 6/7 matches and the second one after 4/15 matches. This ongoing Annwfyn tournament has 16 participants so if the format is 1v1s it will take 15 fights to conclude, which means that it would be practically guaranteed to end prematurely after the first round of fights due to Nakaba's unwillingness to let these tournament arcs drag on for too long. The only way this tournament can actually go all the way is if Nakaba finds a way to trim the number of fights by using a different format. The two options that come to mind are 2v2s, requiring 7 fights to find the winning team and then perhaps a final duel between the members, or 4-person free-for-alls where only the winner advances to the next round, requiring 5 fights in total. I find 2v2s to be the more likely option because that allows for more personal interactions between both the team members as well as the opponents. Then again using free-for-alls would mean that all three tournaments in the series have a different format which could help make each one feel distinct.
As for the matchups, the format of the tournament obviously greatly affects how those can go so I'll refrain from going in-depth on them for now. I will say that in my view the best way to approach this topic is to ask what kind of confrontations would be in some way meaningful? I talked about that in the chapter 164 thread and my position hasn't changed so I might as well quote that here:
Another benefit of 2v2s is that it would allow for Nakaba to even the playing field since there are fairly large differences in power among the contestants. Gowther, Percival, Gawain, Tristan and the two new characters are obviously the strongest people here. There is an argument to be made for Turret/Rothes as well since he commands a Purgatory monster that was too tough for Percival's magic to cut. The other one should be pretty strong too since they work as a pair. Lastly there's Howzer who's probably not anywhere close to KotA level but whose magic was a major concern for the Platoon members so he's probably somewhere between the two groups in terms of strength. If you wanted the teams to be somewhat balanced you could pair the powerhouses with the weaker characters, for example Percival&Diodra, and then the mid tiers amongst themselves, think Turret&Rothes who should have excellent teamwork. That way almost all teams would have a fighting chance, except for whoever gets stuck with Howzer since he doesn't have any other mid tiers to pair up with unless Pelliot is way stronger than previously thought. I like Howzer&Donny and Gowther&Pelliot more though. There could even be more to this whole teaming up process if it's done with magic that pairs people up based on some kind of criteria such as how in-tune the two are with one another. Tristan could then be even more confused about why he's paired up with this girl he doesn't want to hurt for some reason. Meanwhile Diodra starts to get curious about Percival to set up some future drama for the two of them.
Another thing that stands out to me is the "soul girl/boy" fighting against Donny. This mystery person was the only notable participant in the preliminaries who wasn't content with just incapacitating their opponents but was instead immediately going in for the kill even against weaker opponents like Edlin. Whoever loses a fight against them will likely pay for it with their life and I doubt that's going to happen to Donny. Howzer, Turret and Rothes are the only expendable characters among the finalists who could theoretically fall victim to this girl/boy, although Gowther could serve that purpose as well since it's easy for him to have a fake-out death in the form of a beheading or something. And speaking of Howzer and Gowther, I don't really see the point of the former losing to the latter in the first round. Howzer had death flags set up for him in the volume extras so why is his only fight in the tournament one in which he is in zero danger? If he's safe during the tournament then his only chance to put himself in harm's way would be in the battle against Beltreipe where he'd likely just get in the way. I'm not even sure Howzer could pull off some kind of a heroic sacrifice to buy the others time to flee at the end of the arc given the gap between him and Beltreipe is likely pretty massive. Also, why doesn't Diodra have any further interactions with Percival in your matchups? The more Diodra knows about and ideally likes Percival the more of a shock it will be when Percy's cover is finally blown.
As for the matchups, the format of the tournament obviously greatly affects how those can go so I'll refrain from going in-depth on them for now. I will say that in my view the best way to approach this topic is to ask what kind of confrontations would be in some way meaningful? I talked about that in the chapter 164 thread and my position hasn't changed so I might as well quote that here:
I will note that all of these connections don't necessarily have to manifest as fights since if the format ends up being a 2v2 then the team members would get a chance to interact with each other in a friendly manner. That could actually work much better for the likes of Percival and Diodra than making the two of them fight each other since such a clash would likely end in Percy's immediate victory. A similar logic also applies to Tristan and Isolde.
Another benefit of 2v2s is that it would allow for Nakaba to even the playing field since there are fairly large differences in power among the contestants. Gowther, Percival, Gawain, Tristan and the two new characters are obviously the strongest people here. There is an argument to be made for Turret/Rothes as well since he commands a Purgatory monster that was too tough for Percival's magic to cut. The other one should be pretty strong too since they work as a pair. Lastly there's Howzer who's probably not anywhere close to KotA level but whose magic was a major concern for the Platoon members so he's probably somewhere between the two groups in terms of strength. If you wanted the teams to be somewhat balanced you could pair the powerhouses with the weaker characters, for example Percival&Diodra, and then the mid tiers amongst themselves, think Turret&Rothes who should have excellent teamwork. That way almost all teams would have a fighting chance, except for whoever gets stuck with Howzer since he doesn't have any other mid tiers to pair up with unless Pelliot is way stronger than previously thought. I like Howzer&Donny and Gowther&Pelliot more though. There could even be more to this whole teaming up process if it's done with magic that pairs people up based on some kind of criteria such as how in-tune the two are with one another. Tristan could then be even more confused about why he's paired up with this girl he doesn't want to hurt for some reason. Meanwhile Diodra starts to get curious about Percival to set up some future drama for the two of them.
Your timing was quite unfortunate since most of the participants were revealed within like a day of you making this thread. I was initially going to share some of my ideas but there wasn't any point anymore after we got more information. It looks like you've managed to salvage things though.
I find some of your choices strange. Isolde and Chion are trying to restore Tristan's memories so why are there no interactions between him and them, especially after this recent incident with Isolde that revealed that Tristan still instinctively cares about her even in his current state? The plot basically screams for Isolde and Chion to be involved in resolving Tristan's condition and it's also an excellent opportunity to explore what the Tristan Platoon has been up to in the last two years since there are so many questions around it. What were they doing in Camelot at the time they went missing? Why didn't they try to contact Thetis to inform everyone of the situation? When did Tristan lose his memories? How did the platoon's previous encounter with the amnesiac Tristan go? How did they end up in Annwfyn? Are the platoon members aware of the second Isolde and if so, what happened with her? Tristan can't answer these questions because of his amnesia so the answers have to come from Isolde and Chion, preferably in the form of a flashback. The full truth will only come to light when it's time for Tristan to recover his memories but that reveal will flow much better if we already have some context about the situation and are just missing a few key details.I was bored and thinking about MUs so I did this:
I can explain my reasoning for the left side of the bracket pretty easily but it becomes harder and harder from there. We don't know who is Turret and who is Rothes but I am assuming the dark haired one is Turret for now.
Another thing that stands out to me is the "soul girl/boy" fighting against Donny. This mystery person was the only notable participant in the preliminaries who wasn't content with just incapacitating their opponents but was instead immediately going in for the kill even against weaker opponents like Edlin. Whoever loses a fight against them will likely pay for it with their life and I doubt that's going to happen to Donny. Howzer, Turret and Rothes are the only expendable characters among the finalists who could theoretically fall victim to this girl/boy, although Gowther could serve that purpose as well since it's easy for him to have a fake-out death in the form of a beheading or something. And speaking of Howzer and Gowther, I don't really see the point of the former losing to the latter in the first round. Howzer had death flags set up for him in the volume extras so why is his only fight in the tournament one in which he is in zero danger? If he's safe during the tournament then his only chance to put himself in harm's way would be in the battle against Beltreipe where he'd likely just get in the way. I'm not even sure Howzer could pull off some kind of a heroic sacrifice to buy the others time to flee at the end of the arc given the gap between him and Beltreipe is likely pretty massive. Also, why doesn't Diodra have any further interactions with Percival in your matchups? The more Diodra knows about and ideally likes Percival the more of a shock it will be when Percy's cover is finally blown.
The "ghost girl" is almost certainly going to face Percival in this tournament given their earlier clash, which means that if Gowther ends up matched against her he will have to lose that fight.
