Post by Gilly on Feb 24, 2020 3:05:06 GMT
List for reference:
River Song/Shuichi Saihara
Tapu Lele/Wenya Zhu
Fenrir/Zod
Kirby/Gilly
The Star Worn By Verka Serduchka/Coco Pommel
Pikachu/Donald Duck
Stitch/Ted Cruz
Susan/12
Ulysses/Beetlejuice
Tracer/Birdo
Shadow/Montreal Impact
Tetra/Harbinger
So, first things first, my pair. I'm very happy to be paired with Kirby, he's someone I talked a ton with in the first 48 hours of the game, and while he's (at least pretending to be) a newer, less confident player, I think he could do very well, and I honestly don't mind playing the more experienced, mentor role. I also think he's likely to take a bit of a lower tone compared to what I usually go for, so that might balance out my "always at the front of the alliance" tendencies, just a little bit. In short, this is great!
As far as other pairs go, Fenrir/Zod and Stitch/Ted Cruz immediately jump out as a strong ones. Those are pairs where both players I've been in extensive contact with and verified to be strong PM'ers. I suspect Stitch/Ted Cruz might actually be a bit more under the radar given how late into the draft that selection happened. Which, IMO, is a mistake by the rest of the player base. Granted, I did have to start both of those conversations myself, but they both have game, and I think they'll do very well as a team.
River Song/Shuichi Saihara is a bid of an odd couple. Both are kind of middling-ish PM'ers from what I remember of them, and Shuichi is not someone I'd have pegged as first choice in the partner draft. Granted, I was late to the party on messaging him, so it's very possible he has more game than what he showed me. Someone to keep an eye on, I guess.
Susan/12 could be another strong pair, but it's impossible to talk about them without talking about Pikachu/Donald Duck. Here's the thing, Pikachu is a wildcard. He's got strong opinions, and one of those is that he wants 12 gone. He's also very interested in eliminating threats early, and I think he might overplay heavily in pushing early eliminations. I know nothing about Donald Duck as of right now. On the flip side, 12's gimmick is frankly just annoying, and I hate dealing with it. That said, some people seem to like him, and Susan is a good player, so this could go either way. I don't see Susan/12 being eliminated, but they could draw some unnecessary heat unless 12 starts using actual letters in his words.
Ulysses/Beetlejuice, Tracer/Birdo, Shadow/Montreal Impact, and Tetra/Harbinger are all one-sided pairings. One good player (Ulysses/Tracer/Shadow/Tetra), and one bad/inactive player. I think they're all probably kinda unhappy with who they ended up with, and this is really a case of YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER ON THE PAIRING CHALLENGE, PEOPLE! Especially given you could trivially get a pretty good score just by applying a ruler to your screen.
Finally, Tapu Lele/Wenya Zhu and The Star Worn By Verka Serduchka/Coco Pommel are what I feel might be the weakest pairings in the bunch. I did not get messages from Wenya Zhu or Star, and I wasn't impressed by Tapu Lele. Coco Pommel was alright, but not great. They're the first ones I'd look at as potential easy early boots.
River Song/Shuichi Saihara
Tapu Lele/Wenya Zhu
Fenrir/Zod
Kirby/Gilly
The Star Worn By Verka Serduchka/Coco Pommel
Pikachu/Donald Duck
Stitch/Ted Cruz
Susan/12
Ulysses/Beetlejuice
Tracer/Birdo
Shadow/Montreal Impact
Tetra/Harbinger
So, first things first, my pair. I'm very happy to be paired with Kirby, he's someone I talked a ton with in the first 48 hours of the game, and while he's (at least pretending to be) a newer, less confident player, I think he could do very well, and I honestly don't mind playing the more experienced, mentor role. I also think he's likely to take a bit of a lower tone compared to what I usually go for, so that might balance out my "always at the front of the alliance" tendencies, just a little bit. In short, this is great!
As far as other pairs go, Fenrir/Zod and Stitch/Ted Cruz immediately jump out as a strong ones. Those are pairs where both players I've been in extensive contact with and verified to be strong PM'ers. I suspect Stitch/Ted Cruz might actually be a bit more under the radar given how late into the draft that selection happened. Which, IMO, is a mistake by the rest of the player base. Granted, I did have to start both of those conversations myself, but they both have game, and I think they'll do very well as a team.
River Song/Shuichi Saihara is a bid of an odd couple. Both are kind of middling-ish PM'ers from what I remember of them, and Shuichi is not someone I'd have pegged as first choice in the partner draft. Granted, I was late to the party on messaging him, so it's very possible he has more game than what he showed me. Someone to keep an eye on, I guess.
Susan/12 could be another strong pair, but it's impossible to talk about them without talking about Pikachu/Donald Duck. Here's the thing, Pikachu is a wildcard. He's got strong opinions, and one of those is that he wants 12 gone. He's also very interested in eliminating threats early, and I think he might overplay heavily in pushing early eliminations. I know nothing about Donald Duck as of right now. On the flip side, 12's gimmick is frankly just annoying, and I hate dealing with it. That said, some people seem to like him, and Susan is a good player, so this could go either way. I don't see Susan/12 being eliminated, but they could draw some unnecessary heat unless 12 starts using actual letters in his words.
Ulysses/Beetlejuice, Tracer/Birdo, Shadow/Montreal Impact, and Tetra/Harbinger are all one-sided pairings. One good player (Ulysses/Tracer/Shadow/Tetra), and one bad/inactive player. I think they're all probably kinda unhappy with who they ended up with, and this is really a case of YOU SHOULD HAVE TRIED HARDER ON THE PAIRING CHALLENGE, PEOPLE! Especially given you could trivially get a pretty good score just by applying a ruler to your screen.
Finally, Tapu Lele/Wenya Zhu and The Star Worn By Verka Serduchka/Coco Pommel are what I feel might be the weakest pairings in the bunch. I did not get messages from Wenya Zhu or Star, and I wasn't impressed by Tapu Lele. Coco Pommel was alright, but not great. They're the first ones I'd look at as potential easy early boots.