Mouri returned ZSS in his second try. Irie would do it first try probably if he goes all out.
Based on? Ochi is higher ranked than Mouri and didn't manage to return ZSS at all.
Tezuka used Phantom against Sanada and his elbow was injured after 5 or 4 games (I don't remember exactly), so Niou could be injured after some games and be unable to play.
Only because Sanada started using Rin. Not that it really matters though because we've
seen Niou use it for longer than that.
Saiki because I think you don't know what Irie's going to do, I mean, even how he's playing, for me it's just unpredictable, and I feel he could break it somehow, just look at his mental, speed and technique. I'm sure he would break Saiki, if he goes all out and Niou can't reach balls, then Saiki won't work.
This is just guesswork and not necessarily relevant. Chitose wasn't better than Tezuka during the nationals, let alone Tezuka and Inui combined, yet he still had the upper hand against the former until Tezuka unlocked Saiki himself and was supposed to be winning against the combination.
Not saying that he'll never break it, but just writing it off seems incorrect as well.
Rai, the same. Niou's legs won't work after he uses it for some games, then he won't be able to continue the match. Is just that Irie would completely overwhelm Niou, as much as I like Niou, if Irie decided to go all out. Niou won't win this.
Where does it say that he won't be able to use Rai for longer? Sanada used it for I believe... 36 (?) points before his legs gave out, and that was back during the nationals, so before the mountain camp (which surely upped Niou's stamina and makes him at least equal to Nationals!Sanada in that regard).
You keep saying Irie will win easily if he decides to go all out, but I don't see any justification anywhere.
Thing is, its not a bad argument since we have no idea if it was the same Irie that Akiba walked over. Irie the Pierrot is an actor.
Irie got serious only because his acting got dissed. Atobe never dissed Irie's acting.
The scene was exactly the same. Irie used his smash against Atobe and scored, he did it against Akiba and it did nothing. I'd say that heavily implies that Irie played with the same strength then.
Not sure what you want to say with the last line.
Yeah Niou and Atobe are same level, and yeah I expect Atobe and Niou to ass-kick Akiba but so what lol?
Irie VS Atobe, showed Irie just taking Atobe for a fool which I thought no character would be able to do.
And that happened during the team shuffle and isn't representative of their current strength. Irie stopped acting for the last point/last few points btw.
Also I'm willing to say that the Niou from the G10 matches would easily beat the Atobe from the team shuffle.
Troll!Irie had beast stats in Speed and Mental I think. The Irie we saw when Akiba dissed his acting left Akiba on the floor and we don't even know if he was conscious haha. Don't know if Niou and Atobe could do that.
I don't know either, but maybe? We had this before in some other thread, but just because we're going with Irie > Akiba and Niou > Akiba, it doesn't imply anything about whether or how badly Irie would beat Niou.
I don't like to go entirely by stats, but stat wise Irie should win.
I'm not even so sure about that. Niou has better power than a decent amount of the other high tier MSers, since he could break through Ochi/Mouri's defense while Atobe or Tezuka!Niou couldn't. He made a very impressive return of Kagero Zutsumi against Fuji, underlining an at least decent speed which probably increased since then and his technique shouldn't be too bad either.
Stamina and mental are good as well as he demonstrated during the G10 match.
Irie might be slightly ahead stat wise, but I don't think it's by all that much.
Also if Niou does not know the real Irie, what good is SKnK?
It wouldn't be as useful at the beginning of the match, but if Niou can push Irie with other things, he'll get a good idea of Irie's real strength as the match goes on and it'll be useable during the second half.
Irie can hit weak shots to counter HJnK since his technique that he showed against Atobe was off the charts.
Yeah I can agree with this, hence why I didn't bring it up (or at least I don't think I did >_>;; ).
If Mouri managed to pull off returning ZSS, and Mouri is someone who relies on technique just like Irie, surely Irie should pull off something of the sort.
Mouri also saw through AK and found a way to return it, something we haven't seen from Irie.
Becoming Sanada would be useful I guess, I don't know if Irie can return Rai. But at the same time Niou I doubt is as strong as Sanada, and may not be able to handle the toll for a whole 6 games.
Again, I don't think Niou will have any stamina problems over the duration of one set as long as he makes the shots count.
Niou also isn't limited to Tezuka and Sanada here. As I said before, Myougi might give Irie trouble at least when Niou makes it to the net and I wouldn't put it past him to use stuff like Shukuchihou either (which can be sealed, but should work if he uses it sparingly).
Lastly, despite Irie's 2 in stamina most definitely not being the real thing, I doubt he suddenly transformed into a stamina monster, so overall I don't see him at an advantage in long matches.
