Yeah, they're bad. Opened the tournament, checked to see win records, found one of the better win records other than chris, checked their game vs. chris, chris made what I'd consider mediocre but not horrible picks, his opponent made what I'd consider to be diceroll picks. Seriously, it seems as if the computer chose them for him.
https://www.warlight.net/MultiPlayer?GameID=8194763West US, and N Africa?
I could handicap myself in virtually any way vs his opponent (mandatory wasteland pick, maybe even 2, or triple pick, or even triple pick with a mandatory wasteland and I'd still wind up with arguably superior picks and squeeze out a win through play.
And no, I'm not claiming to be amazing at strat 1v1, merely good, his opponent is just that damn bad.