I don ' t think it will be as set up next time around . But I could see Courtney and Trixie being top 2 for sure . <| sep |> There is a chance you ' ll have someone like Mango in your pool . I had Mango in my pool at Apex 2012 , I think . Went in and got completely bopped but it was pretty fun . But spend some time and go to locals . The thing a lot of newer people and older struggle with are stage picks and bans . When a set starts , you typically play rock paper scissors to see who will strike a stage first . This process is used to narrow down which stage the first game will be played on . The person who wins will strike one stage Dreamland , FD , Fountain , Battlefield , Yoshi ' s . So now there ' s four . Then , the loser of the rps game will strike two stages , then the winner strikes one , and the last stage remaining is the one you play on . Let ' s say you win the first match . You are given one stage to ban from the set . People tend to get confused here . Banning and striking are different . When a stage is banned , it can ' t be played for the next game . So , you won on Battlefield . You know the other person is playing Puff , so you ban Dreamland . That means that the opponent has five options to go back to . Battlefield , FD , Fountain , Yoshi ' s , and Pokemon . They can ' t go to Dreamland since you banned it . After you ban , they pick a stage let ' s say Fountain . You are then given the opportunity to change your character . Regardless of whether or not you change your character , after you change or not your opponent is given the chance to change their character . So , to simplify that a bit . Winner bans , Loser picks stage , Winner picks character , Loser picks character . Nobody has to change character if they don ' t want to . So , next match happens , let ' s say they win and they ban Yoshi ' s Story . Most tournaments run the Winner ' s variation of Dave ' s Stupid Rule in their ruleset which says a player cannot counterpick to a stage they won on previously in the set . So , since you won on Battlefield , and Dreamland is banned , this only leaves you with FD , Fountain , and Pokemon , and Dreamland to choose from .