There has been quite a bit of discussion on this thread about how different the last two tournaments were, unpredictable results, etc etc.
I am just throwing a theory out there for consideration. Some of you, I think, also play Fantasy Forest Story. I popped in to have a look at it and have moved myself up to level 10 or 11 when filling in time between DS battles. Anyway, what I did notice is that in FFS battles are much more an integral part of the game and the players win coins, food and gems (equivalent to DS gold). Bear with me, I'm getting to my point slowly, I know.
In FFS when you hit the attack button, words flash up on screen re the attack you have made. "Strong Attack", "Weak Attack", "Critical Hit". Yet the player has no control over the strength of the hit, the player just hits the button. A PyroPony (I think it is) can go to battle against the same opponent with completely different results each time. Lose because of three week attacks the first time, win the second time with a Critical Hit and a Strong Attack.
It is reasonable to assume that the battle code used in these games is very similar or is being made more similar over time (less maintenance with the same code, of course). In DS we see the effect of our attack on the opponent, but not a rating of the strength of our attack, if you see what I mean. Was our attack a strong attack or is the opponent actually weaker? There is no way in the real world a level 1 year old child (a Fire just out of the nest) could be physically stronger and more battle-hardened than a twenty year old soldier (level 15 Infinity), for example, magical powers notwithstanding.
To me, new to all this, the FFS battles seem much more randomised that what I initially thought DS batttles were, based on the calculators available and everyone's careful opponent planning.
But looking at the results of this tournament in conjunction with everyone's comments and my limited experience of the FFS battle programming - it is possible changes have been made to make DS battle results much less predictable and more like what I consider FFS's are: totally randomised.
Just some thoughts....... I could be completely wrong.