My (educated) predictions about Road to Kingdom: a thread

Disclaimers:
1. I ult The Boyz and Golden Child. I'll try to be unbiased, but I do know them better so I have more to say about them
2. A lot of the things I'm writing are based off personal observation - so I have less to say about groups I'm not familiar with

3. I did do research into all these groups, particularly in the idol group brand rankings because those (usually) reflect the popular idols per month
4. There will be fancams sometimes because I like it. eg. here.

Other notes:
This thread will be split up into a few sections: general facts, predictions for each group, and a section where I talk about individual members that I think will stand out in RTK

I will also keep adding to this thread if I get more information or ideas later on during this month or during broadcasting

PART 1: GENERAL FACTS
- THE BOYZ and Golden Child are the only groups with a first win
- I also looked at individual and group brand reputation rankings (for males) from the past 6 months and Golden Child, The Boyz, and Pentagon are likely the most popular groups

PART 2: GROUP PREDICTIONS
1. The Boyz (TBZ)
- Have shown consistently good special stages (KCON)
- They are Top2 in popularity in RTK (see brand rankings)
- Many promotions in the last 6 months (Japan debut, digital single ‘White’, comeback ‘Reveal’ with entirely new concept)

- Extremely strong dance line
- Mihawk (very sought after SM choreographer) is their performance director- never put on a bad performance
- Constantly going viral for being funny
- 10 members making it to the February Boy Group Individual Brand Rankings
- Dance/performance-based

2. GOLDEN CHILD
- Flawless performances and perfect live vocals - they can easily go viral on Naver searches
- Have been first out of the 7 groups in brand rankings for 3 /6 months
- Very successful album and repackaged album (Reboot and Without You)

- Kim Jibeom performing well on Naver searches after his KOMS appearance
- Achieved first win with Wannabe in December
- One of the most synchronized groups
- Even their teaser is insanely good
- Choi Bomin. (I will talk about him later, but he has a huge effect on GolCha)

3. PENTAGON
- Producing - Pentagon will definitely come up with unique ideas for the musical aspect of their stages (I’ll talk more about this later)
- Regular comebacks and recent comeback with their full album Universe: The Black Hall has gained a good response

- Members have also demonstrated composing and writing skills in their recent album
- Insanely strong vocal line and main vocal duo are flawless
- The most experienced group
- For some reason they don't have a 1st win but I don't think that's too important

4. ONF
- They have very unique concepts and distinctive sound
- Flawless and unique vocal line
- Good synchronisation and knifelike choreography (We Must Love)
- We Must Love performed well on charts, and their album sales are consistently improving

- Members previously participated on MixNine which showed their strengths in terms of their individual positions, covering songs, and creativity
- They appear on the group brand rankings once in a while even without a comeback so they're definitely not unpopular

5. ONEUS
- Very good performers and they’re a well rounded group
- Produce 101 and MixNine clout
- Consistently on the boy group brand rankings
- Have had comebacks recently and they released the MV for a comeback (A Song Written Easily) a few days ago with a more fresh concept

- Very impressive vocal line and all members sing well
- I’ve also seen a few of their cover stages and covers which always turn out good, but they haven't had many special stages so it's hard to predict their performances (also ONF), but I believe that they WILL impress.

6. VERIVERY
- They’re cute. Koreans like cute kids
- They can also do a range of concepts
- They’re generally a decently well-rounded group
- They’ve done quite a lot of cover stages so I know that is something that they can do well
- VERIVERY have also had a number of comebacks

7. TOO
- They have a lot of members which means more flexibility for interesting stages
- They seem to have a strong rap + dance line
- They are from a survival show which guarantees good visuals so members can go viral for visuals

I'm also going to add some other observations/comparisons I made:
- TBZ and GolCha are dance-based groups with FANTASTIC choreography (watch their teasers)
- There have not been many special stages from VRVR, ONF, ONEUS, and TOO so it's hard to predict their performance outcomes

- The Boyz, GolCha, and Pentagon are the most popular
- TOO literally debuted today so they're least popular of all competing groups - I’ll monitor their progress in the next month carefully and continue making predictions on this thread in the future

- TBZ and GolCha seem to have the strongest dance lines and are very well-rounded groups
- ONF, ONEUS, PTG have the strongest vocal lines
- TOO has the strongest rap line (along with Pentagon) - ONF and TBZ only have one official rapper (Sunwoo and Wyatt)
- VRVR well rounded

PART 3: INDIVIDUAL MEMBER PREDICTIONS
Solo stans are huge in Korea so I decided to do this section because I believe some members of groups will really help the group in terms of votes.

I’m going to exclude TOO for this one because I really don’t know them at all and I don’t want to make baseless assumptions with no data and no previous observation.
I'm also going to give some examples to show the effect of solo stanning.

A common example of a member having many solo stans is from solo acting jobs and/or visuals
Example A: Astro's Cha Eunwoo. I don't think anyone can deny that Cha Eunwoo's popularity has helped Astro a LOT because Cha Eunwoo is Korea's IT boy. mans is beautiful.

Example B: Jung Chaeyeon
DIA was known as 'Chaeyeon and friends' because her popularity from IOI and solo activities was not translated to DIA. However, Chaeyeon played a huge part in making DIA more popular and they probably would not have had a 1st win without her.

1. THE BOYZ's Bermuda Line (Hyunjae, Juyeon, Younghoon)
- they’re the most popular members of TBZ because of their visuals
- Hyunjae has gone viral online for his visuals at ISAC, and he is the only THE BOYZ member to consistently make it to the individual rankings (BG)

- Hyunjae and Younghoon has those pretty flower boy visuals that Korea loves, while Juyeon is tbz’s sexc and smart main dancer (I'm sorry I had to say that)

It's inevitable that bermuda line will gain a lot of popularity from this show that will help The Boyz

2. THEY BOYZ's Q
- I would regard Q as the Boyz’s fan fairy. He’s constantly being put in the center of choreographies and he really could be the best dancer in this competition
- He can pull off any concept and he sings and raps well too

3. THE BOYZ's Jacob
- I debated putting him here but:
- Jacob has very good vocals and he’s been showing them off a lot more in the last few months (his high notes in Reveal and Mirotic stage)
- his dancing has improved immensely

For The Boyz, I really think these 5 members will help with their popularity a lot. We know that SK loves their visuals which bermuda line will deliver, while Q will deliver his charms and talent, while I think Jacob will surprise audiences by being a dark horse idol

4. GOLDEN CHILD's Choi Bomin
- Bomin is the most popular member in GolCha
- He’s also the main visual member in GolCha
- The only reason why I ever questioned the brand rankings because he’s never been on it while other members have

- In general, Bomin has a lot of solo stans from his solo activities (ATEEN 2, MuBank) which really did help Golden Child a lot with comebacks and will also help them here

5. Golden Child's Lee Jangjun
- he's so hilarious that he'll have his own variety show
- he's ISAC's biggest clown
- Jangjun is also an excellent rapper and dancer, and he will definitely show great expressions and reactions https://twitter.com/i/status/1220706320590036992

6. PENTAGON's Hui
- Hui, along with Hyunjae, has consistently ranked on individual boy group brand rankings and is the most popular member of Pentagon
- Hui is also a very well known producer + he has the most solo activities out of all the members

- he's the ace of Pentagon and he’ll definitely be able to make cool remixes of songs and produce really good music for Pentagon
- He also happens to be one of the best vocalists of his generation and I think that his talents can get Pentagon really far in this competition

7. PENTAGON's Kino
- He’s Pentagon’s main dancer so I think he’ll show a lot of his skills
- Also idk I just watched a video of Pentagon with Na Haeun and Kino is adorable and charming I think he has the potential to do well on Naver searches

8. PENTAGON's Wooseok and Hongseok
- They’re obviously very talented and they’re also popular members of Pentagon
- Wooseok has an AURA and it’s very captivating
- And Hongseok has abs which he showed in Dr. Bebe I think teenagers will really like Hongseok

9. ONF's Kim Hyojin
- In MixNine, Hyojin had consistently good rankings and placed 1st and 2nd all the time
- He’s also an insanely good singer that fits ONF very well
- I just think that Hyojin has the most potential out of ONF to do well on searches and trend

10. VERIVERY's Kangmin
- He’s absolutely adorable and charming and I know Koreans love that
- the most popular member of VRVR (see: individual brand rankings)
- Kangmin definitely will touch a lot of noona’s hearts and he's a fan fairy

11. ONEUS' Hwanwoong
- he is so talented and well rounded, and he’s one of the members that is in center a lot

12. ONEUS' Xion
- He’s the visual of ONEUS with a lot of talent too and visuals always do well in a group

13. ONEUS' Keonhee
I know him the best of all ONEUS members because he’s the iconic living meme/Pepe the frog of Produce 101. I think that he will do well in the show off-stage when they show reactions to performances because Keonhee has insanely funny facial expressions

As of now, this is all the information I have for these groups. My main prediction is that either THE BOYZ, Golden Child, or Pentagon will win RTK.
The Boyz - amazing stages, nation's bermuda line visuals, and their dances are going to be absolutely amazing

Golden Child - insane synchronization and live stages, Bomin solo stans, Jangjun will do something show-stoppingly funny
Pentagon - they do well on brand rankings, Hui will come up with something legendary I just know it

Okay so the boy group brand rankings are out and all groups have made it.
- ONEUS is promoting their comeback now so it makes sense that they’re at the top
- I would expect TOO to be higher up since they’re promoting now https://twitter.com/huinseong/status/1248801075110412288

- it’s surprising that Verivery is 13th because to my knowledge, they don’t have many promotions now
- The Boyz and Pentagon are much lower in rank comparison to before so this is interesting, but they haven’t had any promotions in the recent month so :/

- Golden Child is doing well even without many promotions, i’ll talk more about them later
- ONF’s rank is expected without promotions

Even without official comeback promotions, Golden Child has been quite busy still
- Bomin MCing Music Bank
- Jibeom Special Stage
- Joochan, Seungmin, and Y OST for Best Mistake 2
These could be the reasons why Golden Child is holding up well in the rankings

3 groups have members that are MCs on music shows, which could also help a bit
- Golden Child Choi Bomin on MuBank (w/ Shin Ye Eun)
- The Boyz Juyeon on The Show (W/ Everglow’s Sihyeon and Kim Min Kyu)
- VeriVery Kangmin on Show Champion (w/ Astro’s Moonbin and Sanha)

I highly doubt that MC-ing can do much, but it can help a bit. With all of these members being visuals, it would definitely pull their rank up in the individual brand reputations, which is why Juyeon and Kangmin are always ranked first in their group

I still don’t know why Choi Bomin hasn’t been on the rankings despite clearly being the most popular Golden Child member, so I’ll do more research on that this month. The individual rankings for April haven’t come out yet, so we will see :)

Oh and here’s a separate predictions thread for The Boyz covering Danger by Taemin, since it is rumoured that they’re performing it for the first evaluation. I would do other groups but I just don’t know them and their company well enough + Danger is my favourite Taemin song :) https://twitter.com/sunw00hoo/status/1248185253161611267