Why this game in particular? It wasn't very competitive due to the lower elo player making lots of mistakes which just snowballed into them getting outpaced while they actively helped push the break without setting up for endgame. They stacked their hand for late game, ignoring early game synergy, while the opponent drew and played project relevant cards, building up an uncatchable lead even against eagle and sun bear. So the feedback will prominently be pointing out their misplays, which is kinda weird for me to do because they didn't ask for the feedback themselves and it feels like unsolicited critique.
From the get go, lower elo player picks x token association over pavilion build. X token assoc is decent, but pavilion build is supposedly statistically the best performing action card. It's good even without upgrading build, which is common for higher elo players to skip, especially on Park Restaurant because of how open the map is and you can get special enclosures as a project upgrade, which wasn't needed here for the winner. Pavillion build in general makes navigating the map and getting map bonuses easier, and on Park Restaurant you can use it to more quickly surround the restaurant, boosting your income.
Opening hand for the lower elo player was decent. Only giraffe was project relevant as a herbi, which probably isn't reason enough to keep it since herbis is blocked at two and you can't use it as an early project. Even if you start with herbi uni, that still only gets you to three. And you'll be slow to get them all out and support the project at four without a relevant sponsor. All the while the herbis will take up space in your hand, blocking other synergies. They had marine research and type d orcas synergy in the opening hand, which they recognized. Then they kept eagle, which is bait. It's not project relevant, and it's just going to take up space in their hand while they're likely not taking hand size in round 1. They kept it over the fur seal, which is a good first animal if you're going with a double uni start without projects. They also ignored expansion area, which is an all around good sponsor and a good reason to upgrade sponsors, which most higher elo players tend to do anyway. So my picks for the opening hand would be marine research, type d orcas, fur seal, and expansion area.
Round one, opponent has association priority, they grab hand size. Not a situation where you want to help push the break by doing cards without getting some other actions in. The opponent can just break 5 and do cards, which they did, and now you have to discard without even setting up anything other than grabbing uni while your association is low for the next round. And the cards action was for snapping rhino, which is yet another animal that will take up space in your hand before you can get it out. And even if you do get it out early, it's just gonna give you another card to take up hand space if you can't immediately do the project. And they ended up not even playing the rhino while holding onto it throughout the game. Better to x back cards, grab science 2 rep uni, play marine research, which gets you set up for type d orcas and an early upgrade from five rep which would've preferably been animals to play fur seal which gets you another worker and staying power in rounds. Instead they play giraffe in round two only to push the break but not fast enough for the opponent not to use their double workers from playing talented communicator.
They also snap sun bear in round two. You can see their logic, they already hava a rhino and sun bear is gonna help with species diversity. But it's yet another cards action used up for snapping a card that will just stay in your hand for the time being. Oversnapping was a theme for them. I think they drew from the deck only once in the game if you don't count drawing in the final round when they shouldn't have. And they had no discard cards action card, so it's a waste of its ability. You gotta hit cards that will be more imminently relevant, instead of just holding on to cards for late game. Next round they snap douc from folder one when they can just build for it and play it from range. Next round they snap anaconda, maybe as a deny but a deny of little worth because they already had asia two to do as a project.
Speaking of projects, they were so late on them, and the consequent project rewards which are important for tempo. They had build upgraded, so there wasn't pressing need to get the two size reward. Snapping or aviary for the eagle would've been useful. But instead of doing a project that round they spend their x tokens to break. Why? It just helps the opponent. They have a point lead, they have an ongoing two size reward, and you haven't even set yourself up for the next round by building enclosures, for which you have enough money. Going into the next round, association is at five. Again, no project, just gets partner zoo and two rep. Get the aviary and build for the rhino. Play some of those cards, get them out of your hand. Don't play single animals when the opponent has a 40 point lead.
Start of final round, opponent is two turns from ending, and you're drawing cards from display to deny when they likely already have a way to cross.
I only watched the replay from the lower elo's POV. I imagine the higher elo drew from the deck and consequently hit all the right cards, only snapped twice IIRC, once at the start for expert on americas, so they must've been happy with the rest of their hand, and once for science lab. They hit the animals for three 5 cp projects. They had a maxed out endgame plus three more.
Main lesson, don't oversnap, and don't clog up your hand. That's my feedback. Don't bother crediting me for it. I don't value it that highly.
