The fact that Tierpark berlin didn't make it is really surprising(although,well, they are having a bad choice)
It's only 20-0 currently and the highest losing score I think so far was 17, so unless you can recruit 25 plus Essex members in the next 2 days it's a formality!!
With the second round almost over, this are the likely fixtures for round number three: Prague vs. Bristol Doue-la-Fontaine vs. Tiergarten Schonbrunn Vienna Chester vs. Cologne Planckendael vs. Zurich Zoo Berlin vs. Antwerp Twycross vs. Plzen Burgers' Zoo vs. Pairi Daiza Paris Vincennes vs. Diergaarde Blijdorp All the seeds have a chance of getting through, but a lot will depend on the category. I think only Berlin and Blijdorp are completely safe and Zurich, Prague and Plzen have a high chance to win. Prague seemingly just needs to avoid Ectotherms (which is Prague's potential downfall in every round to come). Vienna will have a tougher challenge, especially when it comes to Birds, Carnivores or Primates. Chester has a tough opponent, but I think that they should win in every Mammalian category, but when it comes to birds or ectotherms Cologne is my favourite. Zurich is a clear favourite, as long as it avoids hoofed mammals, primates and birds would give interesting discussions though. I honestly can't see Antwerp win in any category against Berlin, both zoos are very similar, Berlin is just 3 times as big.... Plzen has a good chance of meeting Berlin in the quarter finals, but it just will have to avoid primates. Twycross in the quarter finals would be a huge stroke of luck, but that is what they have had so far anyway . Burgers' Zoo is the favorite in 4 categories, but when it comes to small mammals or birds they are likely to lose. If Blijdorp gets past Leipzig, they are the clear favourite in basically any category (same if Leipzig would come through).
Also, has anyone noticed that all zoos from the Czech Republic made it to Round 2 and that all zoos from Belgium are in the Round of 16?
My predictions : Prague, Berlin ,Plzen ( unless Twycross gets primates again! ), Rotterdam will all win regardless of category. Burgers will probably get through. The other 3 probably depend entirely on category , so are hard to choose at this point, but based on luck & voting so far I'll suggest Zurich, Chester and Doue la Fontaine.
Unfortunate for my home (and probably favorite) zoo, but I don't see Antwerp getting through to the next round either... Birds, carnivores and ungulates are probably all easy wins for Berlin, primates and small mammals are a bit more equal exhibit quality-wise, but Berlin has much larger collectons, and then there's the aquarium/reptile/amphibian/insect house... I suppose Antwerp does have a butterfly walkthrough which Berlin doesn't, so perhaps combined with the beautiful aquarium and reptile house this might be their biggest (and probably only) chance, but still I don't really have too much faith in that either... For other Belgian zoos, Planckendael and Pairi Daiza are definitely up against very hard to beat collections as well. If any Belgian zoos are to go to the third round, I think I'd have to put my money on Planckendael (which can probably beat Zurich for ungulates and maybe for small mammals, not sure). I think lintworm's and pipaluk's predictions definitely make a lot of sense! We'll see how it plays out, I'm very interested in all the discussions this next round will bring!
If the category is right , Planckendael has a chance against Zurich, it was lucky on category last round , that may not last!
Indeed, just thought about that as well and edited my post! Pairi Daiza probably doesn't have much of a chance at all against Burgers... Maybe for birds or small mammals? For ungulates their elephant policy is too bad and Burgers' Safari is too good, for carnivores their exhibits are often too small and barren and Burgers' exhibits are too good, and I don't think the many terraria on the ship have quite the potential to beat Burgers' Ocean and Burgers' Mangrove on ectotherms...
A thought: It would be nice to have at least the semifinals and finals in multiple (i.e. two or at most three) categories, either as a match-rematch combination (my preference) or as an integrated discussion. Imagining a final of say Berlin vs. Prague on ectotherms seems awfully anticlimactic to me. Making the finals about more than one category should make the duels more balanced and keep things interesting, while staying true to the cup format.
So, it looks like I only got one wrong! That was Zurich losing to Planckendael by one vote ....and I voted for Planckendael ! That round was too easy to predict , I hope there are better matches to come
