The BE-Cup kicks off this weekend. The Rules are simple. The team with the lowest score in a given gameweek is eliminated. You do not get to carry additional points forward, so a high score one week guarantees nothing as you can still be eliminated the next week just as easily as anyone else. In the event two or more teams are tied, then the tiebreakers will be: 1. Which team scored more points without captain points being doubled? 2. Which team scored more points without the benefit of auto-subs? 3. Which team had more points scored by its bench? The team that has scored fewer points on any of these levels is the team that is eliminated. The other team or teams survive and live to fight another day. If these 3 tiebreakers do not break the tie, then the tied teams will both/all be eliminated, unless that would result in fewer than 10 teams remaining, in which case no teams will be eliminated and an extra team will be eliminated the following week, unless it is the last week of the season, in which case a replay would take place if there are remaining gamweeks and, if not, the winner shall be determined by total points for the season (more is better), followed by a coin flip if they are still tied. We got a late start last year so had some early weeks with multiple eliminations. By starting in gw7, there will be no need for multiple elimination weeks, and the Cup Winner will be determined in gw37. The extra gameweek at the end will also allow for one replay if needed to break a tie in the final week. As a barometer, it was not until the very, very end that we saw any significant rise in the points needed to avoid elimination. For the first several weeks, you "should" be safe if you get into the 30s and there will be teams in the 20s that survive if the numbers fall right. FYI, the low scores in gw1 to gw6 have been 22, 22, 28, 25, 18, 23. Eventually will start to see eliminations in the low to mid 30s. Once we get to the final 10, who knows? Last year they stayed pretty low throughout, but who knows.... Pork Soda saw an early exit last year, but has vowed to stick around for at least a few more weeks this year. "We're just looking to improve and build on last season's performance." Meanwhile, the early money for elimination is flying in on The Class Acts, who have posted the low score in 3 of the first 6 gameweeks, with a very close call in gw4 as well. The Class Acts understands why the odds-makers have done what they have done, but has taken some offense and thinks everyone is missing the point: "Good scores are like cell phone minutes. You don't get to carry them forward in this competition. We're thrilled to have these clunkers out of the way. There are some teams out there who have scored well every week. One of those will be the first to go. It won't be us." Good luck.
Not exactly sure where to begin on this one. The payoff on the first elimination did not amount to much, as over half of the first week wagers came in on The Class Acts who were a remarkable 1-1 favorite for the first elimination after having the bottom score in 3 of the first 6 weeks (now 4 of the first 7). But, the manner in which it actually went down had many scratching their heads. BE-Cup Commissioner Blech (after whom the competition is named) was at a loss for words: "I don't get it. If they don't want to participate, then why bother entering. I mean I want to take them at their word about this being a disciplinary matter, but now I've got managers complaining about games being thrown and I really don't know what to say to them. I can't imagine anyone would want to be the first team eliminated from the BE-Cup. It's just hard to argue with those that are making these assertions about some funny monkey business." For those not paying attention, The Class Acts wasted no time in grabbing the #32 position, posting the week's low score with 21 points. The score itself wasn't that surprising, as it followed weeks of 28 (tied for low), 27 (3rd from low), 19 (low), and 23 (low). But, the use of the wildcard had left many thinking things were turning around. And they would have, but for the decision to leave Rooney as the #3 sub. Two subs actually got in off the bench, but when Petrov played 6 minutes and Nasri played 18 minutes, the last two opportunities for Rooney to get onto the field as the third substitute went by the wayside. And, thus, Rooney's 11 points, and the opportunity for a 30-point week went by the wayside as well. Manager: "Hey, we made a mistake. Wayne acted up in practice on Friday. This is a private team matter and I'm not going to discuss it with you *****s. Let's just leave it at, I didn't have any choice but to bench him. You hope that a little discipline won't cost you in a big, prestigious tournament like this, but you also can't let these lads get too big for their britches." Reporter: "So, coach, are you saying that this wasn't a deliberate attempt to throw the game? Rumor has is that Pork Soda actually offered some money for the team that made sure he wasn't the first one out this year." Manager: "You know, you're a little **** and an even bigger *****. Any f---ing **** who wants to say that we're f---ing throwing games, can come and say that to my face out in the back alley and see what kind of response he gets." Yes, another classy and short postgame interview in the BE-Cup. Raytown Rangers took the first dangerzone slot at 25 points (spared the elimination by virtue of the Rooney benching), joined by Welsh Dragonsox (28), and Duck Butter Bandits (29). For those new to the competition, we track the dangerzone (the next three teams) just for the fun of it. There is no penalty for being in the dangerzone, as long as you don't actually end up with the lowest score.
Wow, that was a close one, was worried it was going to be me dropping out. Now to make sure that this slip up doesn't happen again.
it will all take place right here. no need to go anywhere else. as we proceed, i will use last year's format and the eliminations will be shown as follows: 32. The Class Acts (21 points) showing what place the team came in and the points during their week of elimination. if your name isn't on the list, you're still in the running. at various points, i'll provide summaries of the teams that remain as well, but no need for that at this point.
My only ray of sunshine last season, was this competition, making it almost to the final week.. Lets hope for one better this time. Although, I do remember sneaking through one elimination by a single point
Great to see this competition return. It's one of the most entertaining ones out there. Here's to hanging on as long as possible.
Sorry. No time for a real write up this week. GW8 sees the departure of Deco's Diving Divas. Some more questionable coaching moves in the early elimination weeks, as DDD kept Torres as captain notwithstanding reliable injury reports. But, even with the benefit of hindsight, there wasn't much DDD could have done, as the likely captain alternatives would have only nabbed an additional 2 points, which wouldn't have been enough. 31. Deco's Diving Divas (25 points) 32. The Class Acts (21 points) The dangerzone was: Rockville Gunners (28), ACMilano (29), Southside Saturns (30). Yours truly is quite please to sneak by just outside the dangerzone at 32. And a special shout-out to The Class Acts, who follow up last week's elimination with a gold medal performance. The eliminator is sometimes cruel, but the Double Eliminator Cup kicks off in GW14 and will offer a much needed second chance.
At today's press conference, Billy Withers could be heard singing in the background, "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, only darkness everyday...." Clan briefly stepped up to the podium. But could muster no words. And just as quickly stepped back down and left the room. The club subsequently issued a press release: "We are extremely disappointed. We have invested in our future. It cost us dearly today but there are sunny days ahead. Everyone's knows that the BE-Cup is about the here and now, and we were just hoping we could skate by for a couple more weeks. Cards and injuries have done us in. Hopefully the DE-Cup is more forgiving. Don't shed any tears for us. We'll be back. Better and stronger." Officially taking the #3 position in the bottom 8: 30. In off the post (21 points) Clan's crew was done in by a bench that featured the suspended Cahill and the injured Drogba. While they will hopefully pay longterm dividends, this motley group could have used some bench support this week, after tying the BE-Cup season's lowest scoring elimination as a result of only fielding 7 players! Depending on how tiebreakers fell, just 2 or 3 more points would have made the difference. Sorry Clan. We'll miss you. The DEC kicks off in GW14. The dangerzone consisted of: Galway Rovers (23), Tally Road AFC (26), and Crazies (31). Galway Rovers did use one auto-sub, but since it was the grand total of zero points for a Wigan defender, it didn't improve or worsen their situation. The Rovers breathed a sigh of relief after coming within 2 points of elimination, particularly with Dunne sitting on the bench with a 6-point clean sheet. "Normally you get punished in this competition for these kinds of mistakes. Fortunately, the stars were aligned for us this weekend." Apparently seeking Lobo-like recognition this season, Tally Road returns to the news with second dangerzone appearance in a row. "We've studied the rules thoroughly. It's right there in black and white that there is no penalty for finishing near the bottom. So, why try harder when you've already done enough to move on?" However, the "no-more-than-necessary" attitude was contradicted somewhat moments later. Unlike Galway, Tally Road actually did need to go to the substitutes bench to survive. Prior to autosubs, Tally Road had only 20 points. But with a healthy bench, three 2-point players trotted onto the pitch, to bump that 20 up to a whopping 26. "Since we only needed one of the three to take the pitch, we kind of felt like we were showing off a little. But this isn't a rec league, so we had to do what we had to do and we hope that Clan doesn't take offense. It's definitely nice to know how deep our bench is, even if our starters occasionally fail to show up." Hard to tell if Tally Road is holding something back or if this is really all that they've got!!! 3 down, 29 remain. On to GW10.
Aye, I was (and still am) having fits about my team. Cahill with his 3 game straight red suspension was bad enough, but then Valencia was added to it with his red card last week, plus Drogba becoming a bloody sicknote.... Stiil, as you poined out, it's a long season and dropping Cahill and Cole was unthinkable (especially with the bloody vultures that make up the top flight!)..and Chelsea will win nowt this season on the back of Anelka, being...er...um...*ahem* supported....by the likes of Malouda and Kalou. Drogba will play, and play lots. Short term pain for long term reward.
29. Crazies (26 points) 30. In off the post (21 points) 31. Deco's Diving Divas (25 points) 32. The Class Acts (21 points) Another elimination for a team playing short-handed. Crazies suits up only 9, and ends up with an early exit from the BE-Cup. The danger zone this week is Aviators (31), Bettermirror (34), and Tally Road (34). Yes, three in a row in the danger zone for Tally Road. For anyone wondering, scores were up this gameweek. The average score for the four leagues was 49.56, which is the highest average for the year. This compares with 47.69 last week, and the season low of 41.63 in gw5. One other note - one team from each league has been eliminated. Crazies is the first team eliminated that did NOT have the first draft pick. Yes, the first three eliminees had first draft picks. VCC in Sand is the only remaining first draft pick team. We have the first half of the bottom 8. 28 teams remain.
28. Yellowcake Phantoms (19 points - gw11) There will be no re-count. Setting a new low for futility since the start of the BE-Cup, YPFC became the 5th team to be eliminated. Captain Rooney put up 4 points - which doubles to 8 points - meaning that the remaining 10 players yielded only 11 points. YPFC did not suffer from a lack of depth like some other recent departures, and actually had points on the bench that would have saved them from departure. Hull's Marney came on for 2 additional points, but Stoke's Olofinjana and his 8 points sat on the benching waiting and hoping. Who could have known that Olofinjana should have started over Van Persie. Manager Jones was matter of fact about it: "I blew it. Hindsight is 20-20." The dangerzone consisted of: Kopite Juniors (23), Tally Road AFC (26), and Southside Saturns (28). Tally appears in the danger zone for the 4th gameweek in a row. While Yellowcake lost out on Stoke points, Kopite survives based on the prudent decision to play Stoke's Delap instead of Liverpool's Dossena. Delap came through with yet another now trademark slingshot throw for an assist and picked up 3 bonus points, enough to make the difference and carry Kopite through.
Whew, I'm just happy I withstood the Ronaldo-less weeks. Even so I'm going to score in bunches and then not at all, so one of these coming weeks when I get an 80 because Ronaldo scores five, I'll be safe. In weeks when he doesn't score, I'll get bounced out. Maybe this ought to be a three-week running average. Just kidding. That's my way of making Mr. Blechner spit coffee on his screen at the thought of contributing even MORE work to making this season a fun thing.
27. Tally Road AFC (18 points - gw12) 28. Yellowcake Phantoms (19 points - gw11) After a record 4 weeks in a row in the danger zone, Tally Road AFC was unable to pull off yet another miracle late game save. There was not formal postgame conference, but manager Lawrence Guest was caught briefly by our sideline reporter before entering the tunnel. "Coach, What went wrong today?" "What went wrong? What went right? My dear ole Pappy used to tell me that if you play with matches you can set off huge explosions that cause serious fires in the mountains. I still don't know what in the world he was talking about or why he had a glimmer in his eyes when he said it, but we've definitely been playing with matches. I know some clever analyst is going to second-guess this or that, but we've been lucky to make it this far and we simply don't have the resources to compete in all of these competitions. I know, I know, you're going to tell me that it doesn't cost anything to compete in this competition. But that's not the point. We're stretched too thin. We have no bench. We don't even have starters. You sometimes hear people talk about a sinking ship. This ship has done gone and sunk." This week's dangerzone consisted of: Sasha Juniors (23), Kopite Juniors (27), and Raytown Rangers (29). This marks two trips in a row for Kopite, who showed how easy it can be to get to the high 20s just by fielding a full team and picking up one assist. Enough to survive this week, but they're going to need to pick it up. Sasha Juniors actually pick up the difference to survive from the bench, as autosub brings on Cisse and his 6 points for the still injured Carvalho. The fact that Cisse had a goal made the difference look larger than it was, although the fact was that Sasha just a needed a sub with a full game to clear the bottom. However, that couldn't have been known at the time. While Tally had to know that some second-guessing was coming, it's hard not to question a roster that only fielded 7 players (including the bench), one of whom only got on for 5 minutes. Clearly, 4 players who played could have made up the 5 point difference needed to get to safety this week, which for that matter could have been accomplished by giving the captain's armband to first round pick Fabregas over the injured Santa Cruz. And, a scary week for VSR, who had the eliminee and 2 of the 3 in the dangerzone. Bottom line -- Sasha Juniors gets a gift, we say goodbye to another bottom 8 team, and there are now 26 teams left......
Well, he only got 3 points, but he did outscore your captain and basically everyone else on your team this past week.....
Interesting idea. Of course, I'm still trying to figure out how to create a tournament that I can win. After I finish that, I'll gladly turn to trying to create one for you! Unfortunately, this means you may have to wait a while.....
My team in good on paper, but not producing on the pitch. Bit of a headscratcher. Torres should be off the bench and starting now, but whether he can match Delap's point production is debatable
I though I was wiped out for sure. I made disasterous transfers trying to win against Lobo Mojo in the Golden Boot match up. I trade Anichebe who gets an assist for Fuller. I trade Gera for Alsono who was to be a big goal scorer against West Brom only to see him enter the pitch for the final 10 minutes to run around and get some exercies. I trade Garrido for Dawson. Turns out Garrido starts again and Traore who I kept lost his position to Kranjcar. I thought I was the Eliminator Cup winner of the week and made two trades for this weekend. I hope to get myself out of the danger zone.
"Halftime Report" -- With 8 of 10 games played during gw13, here are the bottom 6 potential eliminees going into Sunday's games for Everton, Middlesbrough, Hull and ManCity, showing points that each team will get from subs needed to fill spots not played today as well as remaining players for tomorrow's games (note - if any of these players don't play, there may still be additional subs on some of these rosters): Windsor - 18 + 2 (Sorensen) + 1 (Toure) + Wright-Phillips + Kompany ACMilano - 18 + 2 (Richardson) + Hart + Elano + Arteta + Benjani Southside - 19 + 1 (Ballack) + Zayatte + Tuncay (capt.) Bettermirror - 21 + Hart + Kompany + Cahill + Elano + Geovanni + King Galway - 22 + 4 (Gomes) + Lescott + Dunne + Ireland LSG - 25 + Turnbull + Lescott + Geovanni + Arteta + Robinho Old Peculiar - 28 + Lescott + Piennar Windsor and Southside are the two facing the biggest struggles, as they are each down to only two players each (although Southside still has the captain in the running). Old Peculiar is also short on players, but should easily get into the 30s, and this is looking like another elimination in the 20s at this point. Obviously, any showing by Tuncay could vault Southside to safety given his captaincy, while a Wright-Phillips goal or assist would end Zayatte's hopes for a clean sheet and be a critical moment in Windsor's hope to survive. If Windsor goes out, he will have to second guess giving the captain's armband to "Minutes Are Few" Carew over Tevez (5) or SWP. Note: I didn't pay attention to whether any of these teams have any Liverpool players. As bonus points have not yet been added for that game, these scores may still change slightly.
26. Windsor Wanderers (23 points - gw13) 27. Tally Road AFC (18 points - gw12) 28. Yellowcake Phantoms (19 points - gw11) "Painful. Just painful. To play so poorly, but to still know you're in it and then have it yanked away. Just downright painful." Another short and to-the-point BE-Cup post-match interview. Windsor had actually pulled even with Southside Saturns briefly this morning at 25 points each, but then Kompany lost a point when Man City conceded their second goal and then Wright-Phillips lost a point when he picked up a somewhat silly yellow card. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory?!?! The dangerzone was the aforementioned Southside Saturns (25), followed by Old Peculiar (31), ACMilano (32) and Kopite Juniors (32). This was 2 out of 3 in the dangerzone for Southside, who really was flirting with elimination, and was 3 in a row for Kopite. We are now one team away from identifying the dreaded bottom 8. 25 teams remain.