Over the course of this tournament, I've really come to appreciate the beauty of the 25-game team Scrabble match. It's a really interesting number of games, 25 - it's enough that the better team usually has a fair chance to rise to the top by the end, but it's not so many that the result is necessarily predictable. Many of the top teams have fared well in this Virtual World Cup format, but we certainly have seen our fair share of dramatic upsets.

Going into the event, we ranked every team in the tournament by WESPA rating in order to seed them fairly. We found that two teams had average ratings over 2000, three more were just over 1900, and there was a bit of a drop after that. Based on these numbers, I feared that the top seeds might simply dominate, and there wouldn't be much suspense for the viewers.

I now realize these fears were unfounded.

Anything can happen in a 25-game match, and in this tournament, just about everything has. We've seen some highly ranked teams take care of business; we've also seen some surprises. Bottom seeds have taken down top seeds. Teams have overcome nigh-insurmountable leads like 12-8, 7-2, and 9-1. Unheralded youngsters have toppled world champions. Three of our four No. 1 seeds have been sent packing.

The dust is now settling at the Virtual World Cup; after all the madness, we're down to just four countries with a chance to win it all. Next week, we'll have just two, and a week after that, we'll have our champions. Here's a look at the matchups that await us in the semifinals this weekend.

CANADA VS. INDIA

How they got here: Canada's route to the semifinals was pretty simple: They've won every single match they've played. The Canadians swept through Group C in pool play, notching wins over Ghana, Kenya and Singapore, which slotted them into a quarterfinal matchup against Ireland this past weekend. What followed was the most thrilling match of the whole tournament - the two teams were tied 10-10 going into the final round, setting up one final round of 5 games for all the marbles. The first four games split 2-2, and it all came down to Canada's Tony Leah against Ireland's Rik Kennedy. In an incredible game, Tony came back at the end and bingoed with MESQUITE for 137 to steal the win from Rik, 437-433. By the absolute slimmest of margins, Canada advances.

As for India, they're also no strangers to dramatic comebacks. After winning Group A with a 2-1 record in pool play, the Indians squared off against the Australians in their playoff opener, and they needed a clutch final round to knock off the Aussies. Trailing 11-9 after four rounds, they needed to win 4 of the final 5, and that's exactly what they did! David Eldar took down Akshay Bhandarkar to get Australia its 12th win, but the other four Indians - Sherwin Rodrigues, Nakul Prabhu, Aditya Iyengar and Udayan Grover - all won, including a 497-470 thriller for Sherwin over Chris May. Just like the Canadians, the Indians escape with a 13-12 victory.

What happens next: A semifinal showdown! Canada faces India at 3 p.m. GMT this coming Saturday. That's 8 a.m. in Vancouver, 11 a.m. in Toronto and 8:30 p.m. in Mumbai. The victorious team will then play the following weekend with a chance to win the whole thing.

To catch the Canada/India action live, all you have to do is follow Will Anderson's Twitch channel: twitch.tv/wanderer15

PAKISTAN VS. UNITED STATES

How they got here: Like Canada, Pakistan has gotten here by dominating everyone in their path. The Pakistanis are an impressive 4-0 in matches and 60-40 in individual games since the start of the tournament - they cruised through Group B with wins over Nigeria, Australia and South Africa, then beat Malaysia in the first match of the playoffs. Saturday's win was not without a little drama - up 12-8 going into the final round, Pakistan only needed one more win to seal the deal, but they almost didn't get it. Ganesh Asirvatham, Andrew Chang and Martin Teo all won for Malaysia, narrowing the gap to 12-11... but Moiz Ullah Baig finally sealed the deal, getting the deciding win by a 485-339 margin over Darren Khoo. For now, Pakistan remains undefeated.

They've got a daunting opponent now in the U.S. While the Americans are a mere 3-1, they have more overall game wins than the Pakistanis, with 63. When they've won, they've won big. Team USA's path to these semifinals included big wins over the Philippines and New Zealand, a narrow loss to Ireland, and then a surprisingly lopsided 18-7 victory over Singapore on Saturday. Will Anderson went 5-0 to lead the way in that match, and Austin Shin also delivered some fireworks for the Americans, dropping 9-letter bombs with CONTAiN(ED) and UNDEFAc(ED).

What happens next: This semifinal should be pretty epic. It's the top-seeded team remaining in the tournament against a squad that's gone undefeated to date - and only one can advance! Pakistan and the U.S. will do battle at 3 p.m. GMT on Sunday. That's 8 a.m. in San Francisco, 11 a.m. in New York and 8 p.m. in Karachi. Winner goes to the finals! No pressure.

The match will be broadcast on the Collins Coalition Twitch channel. To get an alert the moment we go live, just give us a follow: twitch.tv/cocoscrabble

I'm excited for another great weekend of Scrabble that surely awaits us. I hope all of you around the world are enjoying following this tournament as much as we're enjoying running it - it's been a thrill to see so many Scrabble players and fans come along for the ride with us. It's also great to see you all engaging with all the VWC-related content we're putting out, whether it's on this site, on Twitch, or on our social media platforms.

Can't wait to get started with the final four! See you then.