RotoBot’s read of the tournament: who lifts the trophy, who tops each group, the dark horses worth a long look, and a full projected bracket. Every call is a model strength-read — league-adjusted squad strength, World Cup pedigree, path difficulty and form — not a posted odds line.
Title contenders are ranked on a blend of league-adjusted squad strength (which already folds in de-vigged group-match odds), World Cup pedigree from 42 nations’ full tournament history, the difficulty of the path (group-of-death scoring), and squad balance. The projected bracket is RotoBot’s balanced auto-fill — chalk with a pulse, where genuine coin-flips can break either way. Dark horses are the model’s call on settled sides with a soft early path, deliberately excluding the top favorites.