Unbeliveable, Irie vs Tezuka Irie? Seriously?
That with TZ, plus Hyakuren and Saiki, would have lost? Not at all. Tezuka is likely to be stronger than Irie before unlocking POP. Just saying that Irie is stronger than Tezuka pre POP is really absurd, I won't think, and never, than Irie is and was stronger than Tezuka.
Irie has very low power, so Hyakuren's effect would be minimal against him. On the flipside his technical abilities are very high which should be enough to overcome TZone. As for Saiki, it's called an "absolute prediction", whereas Irie can see through any prediction according to Oni.
The only things Tezuka has left are ZSS and TPhantom, and he won't overuse either of them since they damage his arm. Then Irie should still have somewhat higher stats (not quite as much as during the team shuffle but still by a bit).
So I don't see why you'd say Irie will definitely lose.
Well.
Nationals!Tezuka VS current Yukimura who no longer needs to be winning to Yip his opponent. You chose Tezuka? He would definetely get yipped if Sanada got Yipped and nobody was winning.
Still needs to return shots from what we know. Tezuka has the combination of Hyakuren and Saiki, which I believe to be enough to beat Yukimura.
I see Sanada defeating Irie.
I think both Tezuka vs Irie and Sanada vs Irie are very close, and you could make arguments for either side. I just went with Irie here.
Why do you not see Hirakoba taking out Sengoku?
If Hirakoba forced a new counter out of Fuji, why won't he take out Sengoku?
Regionals!Fuji > Sengoku most likely.
They are both in 6th Court. Which is the throw-away court with Kamio and Amane too.
So their improvement shouldn't be any different from the other.
I don't think Regionals!Fuji > Nationals!Sengoku. It's kinda difficult for Sengoku because we haven't seen very much of him, but he has some good results in the nationals.
Even if you discount the win against Sakata, he also beat the original Nagoya's S1. Those guys probably couldn't stand up to the foreigners, but at the same time they did make it to the SFs (and destroyed their QF opponent), so I think they could at least be on equal footing with most of Higa, if not better.
To get into some more match specific stuff, Shukuchihou shouldn't be an issue for Sengoku. As we've seen in the Seigaku vs Higa matches, it's pretty easy to seal in Singles when you know how to do it. I don't see Sengoku having any trouble with the normal Habu either; he is more of a technical player (so his normal swings are probably smaller) and he has the motion vision to help him out.
As for the Giant Habu, he only hit it once against Fuji/Kawamura and was completely worn out afterwards. Even with the improvement, I don't see him hitting it without trouble throughout the whole match.
And once Hirakoba's spin shots have weakened, Sengoku most definitely has the upper hand. Shukuchihou cannot be used to cover the sides and Hirakoba isn't as fast as Kamio was, so Sengoku's attack pattern from back then would still work.
Overall it should be close, but I see Sengoku edging out a win here.
They are both in 6th Court. Which is the throw-away court with Kamio and Amane too.
So their improvement shouldn't be any different from the other.
Indeed, there's no reason to assume their camp improvement is any different from each other, but I'm giving Sengoku credit for his regionals -> nationals improvements as well.
Hold on Kaoz, also explain why Shishido/Tanishi > Oshitari.Y/Kaidoh lol.
Where should I start with this one... as you probably noticed, Shishido/Tanishi is pretty much SP++ (just as Marui/Kite is CP++) and especially lately I'm getting the feeling that if the playstyles match like that, their teamwork will be displayed as just as good as the original pair's. So Shishido/Tanishi have an advantage there imo.
Next, neither Yuushi nor Kaidou have great power, so I can see them struggling with Big Bang (not necessarily aces, but they'll be on the defense).
Their offense on the other hand is based on being unpredictable with their shots, but Shishido has outstanding reflexes, meaning he could probably catch up to Kaidou's shots even after seeing what they are (remember that he's the only guy who we've actually seen capable of returning a Synchro shot outside the G10, and at a much earlier point in the series on top of that), and I can see Inducement Formation being enough to limit Yuushi's shots.
At the same time, the Rising Counter is still a potent offensive tool and Shukuchihou is actually useable in doubles.
Overall I think that Shishido/Tanishi have the upper hand in the beginning and that it'll gradually shift towards Yuushi/Kaidou as the match progresses. It's mostly a matter of whether they can finish it before Kaidou's stamina advantage kicks in, although looking back at it, maybe there's a higher chance of this happening than not.
So this is probably one of the matches I'd reconsider.
