His opponent is the 16 year old student from Cambridge University Jonathan "Rawley" Rawlinson (pictured below).
| Click to see full-size image. |
Many countdown fanatics have dubbed this match the clash of the tournament, and moreover, the clash has sparked some controversy and debate as to the draw, as many would put these two as top 2 or 3 seeds in the whole competition, so them meeting in the last 16 doesn't seem right, so they say.
Both will feel like they can win this match, considering they both spend hours and hours battling each other online, so know each others games inside out. Rawley favours the "4 large" approach to the numbers, whereas Andrew only announces "4 large" when at the front of the queue at KFC. Rawley will considering himself a big favourite in the conundrum round with an incredible "distinct conundrums solved" statistic of 9805 of 10041 available (98%) on
www.apertous.org.
Rawley has got the better of "Drew" in head to head encounters unfortunately. Drew defended this record in his pre match interview saying "He (Rawley) has got the better of me online, but that's usually because I'm playing 20 tables of online poker at the same time, not to mention a couple of side games (of countdown) vs lesser opposition to keep busy during the sync breaks".
Drew also fancies himself in the "live" arena, and thinks he has the edge on reading abilities and is more comfortable in social situations. This is very much up for debate. Stato is also considerably larger than his opponent, so Rawley could have the edge in the stamina department.
Their online records are as follows (taken from apterous.org):
Andrew Hulme
Pro Rank: 31st (1623 points).
Peak Pro Rank: 5th (1749 points).
Rating: 1781 (#43 human, #46 overall).
Record: 2,733 wins in 4,367 games.
Jonathan Rawlinson
Pro Rank: 16th (1738 points).
Peak Pro Rank: 9th (1751 points).
Rating: 1898 (#26 human, #29 overall).
Record: 5,519 wins in 6,459 games.
So the figures all point towards Rawley, and the bookies have him as a 4/5 favourite. Stato has never been one to taken notice of stats however, and will certainly be confident going into this match.
All things considered, it's without doubt a finely balanced tie, and will be a thrilling encounter.
Author