blech's eliminator cup -- 2011-12 [r]

Could it really be that this is the BE-Cup's 5th year?

Here's the link to last year's thread, with links there in to prior years and additional history and rules:
https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1555834

And, yes, without any fanfare or even an announcement, this latest edition of the be-cup did kick off in gameweek 7 (just like last year), which means that we're now 5 weeks in, have already had 5 eliminations, and are down to 27....

The immunity rules came into play, and even granted a brief reprieve, so perhaps something for the conspiracy theorists to discuss. More to follow shortly to bring everyone up to speed.


PS - The current plan is to cut back on the competitions by dispensing with DE-Cup this year, so no more second chances.

 

Immunity!

Last year's second place teams got one week of immunity, but since I'm feeling very confident that Surreywood wasn't one of them, immunity during the kickoff week (gw7) was never going to matter and i haven't bothered to identify the second place teams.

The remaining immunity was distributed as follows:

** First 3 weeks - Rockville Gunners as last year's winner of Small Rocks

** First 2 weeks - ColdDogSoup, FC St Pauli, and FC Weymouth as the other three league winners. FC Weymouth was also the 2010-11 BE-Cup winner and would have grabbed immunity for the first two weeks that way as well, but that just means double security during the first two weeks -- they don't get added up.

Note -- The BE-Cup still does not recognize Splinters as an actual league, so winning that didn't earn anyone anything

 

"Just Trying To Hold On -- The Battle For The BE-Cup Is Underway!"

Knocking out the first half of the first unlucky group of 8, the first four eliminations were:

29. Ram it in There! - [26 points - gw10]*
30. Kopite Juniors - [20 points - gw9]
31. FC Springfield - [27 points - gw8]**
32. Surreywood Rangers - [32 points - gw7]


Notes on the early rounds of the competition:

- GW7: A ship lost at sea without a captain, Surreywood has been floating aimlessly without a direction and not surprisingly in the running for the lowest score in almost every week. The early exit was no surprise under the circumstances, but the 32 points in gw7 actually remains the highest score for an elimination so far.

- GW8: FC Springfield pays the price for the first immunity twist. FC Weymouth posted the low mark of 26 points in gw8, but FCW was holding double immunity as a league winner and reigning BE-Cup holder. After news leaked of the first time use of immunity, FCW promptly received an invitation to the postgame party in Lobo's penthouse suite, where Lobo was spotted dancing a jig and mumbling something about sweet Springfield revenege. "What could be sweeter than Wiggum thinking he was safe and then finding out 3 weeks later that immunity kicked in to boot him out. It's like one of those episodes where Homer is dreaming about a donut dipped in a chocolate beer batter only to awaken to Marge tossing a salad ... with low cal dressing!" The official word out of camp FC Weymouth was less colorful: "We apologize for nothing. We're not afraid to live in the past. Indeed, we actually like it. We earned our immunity with strong performances last year, and that means that someone else had to go." At which point, Lobo started dancing again.

- GW9: Sometimes it only takes a point to stay alive. GW9 presented the season's first one-point differential, with Keysersoze putting up a mere 21 points but being spared the axe by Kopite's 20. The 20 points was quite an impressive feat in a lot of ways, as unlike the typical situation, it was not the result of a shortage of players as all 15 players including everyone on the bench played. Unfortunately, none of them played particularly well, and a smattering of yellow cards ended up being the difference. As a side note, no longer the junior Adams, the team manager is rumored to be in a dispute with management to remove "Juniors" from the team name. "It's time I'm treated with some respect."

- GW10: Tiebreaker! The one-point difference in GW9 was followed by the season's first tiebreaker. Ram it in There! only had 2 points from captain Rooney in getting to 26, so things looked good, but Yellowcake got to 26 with only 1 point from captain Balotelli. After subtracting the doubled points, Yellowcake could only ask: "Why Always Me?"

Immunity is now over, and 4 teams (352 Sizzle, In off the post, Keysersize, and Top Shelf) have already made two dangerzone visits in only 2 weeks.

 

"Second Chances Come And Gone."

28. FC Weymouth - [25 points - gw11]

FC Weymouth only saw 8 players take the field, suffering through a brutal outing that saw 17 points from three players, 2 points doubled to 4 from the captain, and then 4 points total from the other four players that managed to show up. "I don't understand. We were so good last year. And, they told me I could keep buying these little immunty doo-hicky thing-a-ma-jigs, but then the guy never showed on the street corner. I'm still not sure where things went wrong."

The dangerzone included Pork Soda (28), blechs_dawgs (32), and Pittsadelphia (34). It was a second visit on the season for Pittsadelphia.

It was the third week in a row for a Sand team to depart, with FCW following Ram It In There! and Kopite Juniors. At least for now VSR has managed to avoid an elimination.

 

Just to clarify, all 32 teams were entered. If you're name does not appear above, i.e., you're not #28-32, then you're still in. I'll usually post a list of the remaining teams at the midway mark and on random occasions after that, but you don't want to see your name.

Translation: Jedi, You're still in! But you probably knew that and are just playing mind tricks on me....

 

27. wewunwunce - [24 points - gw12]

They asked wewunwunce before the game began to say the name quickly three times. It couldn't be done.

I've lost some data so I'm going to cease tracking dangerzone visits.

And, the BE-Cup committee will likely meet over the coming days. With an extra week built into the schedule, the unofficial early vote was to give the newly acquired franchise now known as AC Tig a second chance in light of the serious energy being devoted by the new owner.

 

So, first things first, and to make it official, AC TIG is a new owner with a new name and will get a second chance in the BE-Cup. The elimination of Surreywood in the first week of the competition has been wiped from the 2011-12 BE-Cup books and AC TIG is back in the running. Although anything is possible, it would seem unlikely that a squad saddled with a reduced budget and restricted primarily to midseason acquisitions could run the table, but we will see and we certainly wish AC TIG the best of luck. At the very minimum, there will be an asterisk if/when AC TIG is eliminated as it will act to save someone else from elimination that week, and so on and so on. Part of me likes the simplicity of this competition in its current format, but the wheels are turning for how to turn this type of midseason revival into a regular twist.

Moving on to the week's regular update, although Balotelli can't get all of the blame for a score that set a new low mark for an elimination this season, Yellowcake Phantoms did have the misfortune of owning Super Mario, who lived up to his Jekyll/Hyde reputation. I actually said to my son when they made the substitution, "He's either going to do something remarkable or something crazy. We just won't know which for a little while longer." I'd like to think it was a truly clairvoyant and/or all-knowing moment, but it's really not that much different than predicting that the sun will rise tomorrow. Fortunately my son doesn't understand that yet, and he was mightily impressed!

So:

27. Yellowcake Phantoms - [19 points - gw13]

And the adjusted record:

28//27. wewunwunce - [24 points - gw12]
29//28. FC Weymouth - [25 points - gw11]
30//29. Ram it in There! - [26 points - gw10]*
31//30. Kopite Juniors - [20 points - gw9]
32//31. FC Springfield - [27 points - gw8]**
ERASED//32. Surreywood Rangers - [32 points - gw7]


As before, if you're name isn't listed, you're still in.

 

Not to be outdone by Yellowcake's season-low departure last week, Aviators threw down an equally unimpressive 19 points this week to grab the elimination.

26. Aviators - [19 points - gw14]

Pointing to this week's substantially higher average per team of 56.09 (compared to the pedestrian 41.84 posted in gw13), Aviators claimed that staying under 20 was even more difficult. Not much to hang onto, but I suppose it's something.

A little bit of a scare for my dawgs (29), sasha (33) and the typically high-flying Top Shelf (33), but with a 10-point cushion not really a lot of danger in the danger zone.

AC TIG Watch: The Tigster was actually next in line at the bottom of the pack with 39, a healthy enough score to avoid elimination until the latest of rounds or the craziest of weeks, but low enough to perhaps earn a boardroom visit to provide some assurances for future weeks.

With one more elimination next week, we'll be 1/4 of the way to the finish line. Good luck.

 

A gameweek in arrears, we go back to gw15 to wrap up the first group of 8 with a close call for my dawgs:

25. Glorydaze fC - [27 points - gw15]
26. Aviators - [19 points - gw14]
27. Yellowcake Phantoms - [19 points - gw13]
28//27. wewunwunce - [24 points - gw12]
29//28. FC Weymouth - [25 points - gw11]
30//29. Ram it in There! - [26 points - gw10]*
31//30. Kopite Juniors - [20 points - gw9]
32//31. FC Springfield - [27 points - gw8]**

Apologies to Glorydaze for the early boot from the competition, but a thankful one on this end as Glorydaze's 27 points just barely edge out the 28 points posted by blechs_dawgs.

Moving onto gw16, it's a run of Smalls Rocks squads, as Lobo picks a bad time to stumble:

24. ColdDogSoup - [29 points - gw16]

With Neil's Taylor's 7 points sitting at the end of the bench, the Lobo man had some questions to answer during the postgame press conference, but with the next team's resting on 36, it wouldn't have made a difference. "I never really did like Blech that much, and the last thing we need is some shiny Cup from Tinseltown trying to brighten up Loboland. Last time we talked to him, blech was going on and on and on about some tasty pork broth based ramen that opened up next to the neighborhood watering hole / premier league viewing spot. Let me be clear - we like our soup cold and not hot, with dog and not pork, we drink are ale warm and not cold, and you can take your stinkin' cup and fill it with horse manure. Did I mention that I don't really care too much for blech? I mean he's sitting in the relegation zone. He needs a Cup or two just to give him something to play for. We're focused on the title, and with Gunners and Virgins firing on all cylinders, we don't need the stinkin' Cup. Did I mention that I don't like blech?"

AC Tig watch: The Tigster stumbled again in gw15, sitting tied for second from the bottom with 31 points and 4 points clear of Glorydaze's exit number. But, it was clear sailing in gw16 with a healthy 45 during a low-scoring week.

Gameweeks are coming fast and furious. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with separate posts, but will do my best.

 

As gw17 draws to a close, all eyes turn to the bonus scores, with LSG trailing Denocmuppet by 1, 28 to 29. Deno will survive in the event of a tie, so LSG needs to come up with 2 BPs, minimum. With Wellbeck and Agger as the only 2 players scoring more than 4 points, it would seem a longshot at best. LSG have already sent in their top legal team to make sure this gets a full and proper review, but at the moment it looks quite grim. Of course, the final kick in the pants for LSG is that Friedel over Al Habsi looked like the right move on paper (and might have been had someone other than Adam taken the PK) but Al Habsi will likely be the only LSGean who gets BPs and they'll be sitting on the bench along with more than enough points to have vaulted LSG to saftey. Barring a holiday miracle, this will be the 3rd week in a row for a Small Rocks exit and will leave Small Rocks with a disproportionate 4 of the first 10 eliminations.

 

Confirming what went down in gw17,

23. London St. Germain -- [30 points - gw17]

bonus points came in for LSG for Adam of all people. is a missed PK deemed a shot "on target" and thus a positive event when they're calculating BPs??? in any event, Deno had the boni covered and ended up on 34, joined by Park Lane at 34 and AC Tig at 37.

22. In off the post - [24 points - gw18]

Micah Richards was still unable to play, and the loss of the ManCity clean sheet points ends up the difference with 352 Sizzle ending on 28 points and iotp holding the tie breaker. Rooney vs Wigan did look good on paper, but Berbs steals the show and Rooney is limited to mop up minutes. a classic case of bad fortune for iotp, who has been on a good run and hadn't been below 40 points since gw10. but unfortunately it only takes one slip.

fc st pauli and lee's summit were close enough to sweat at 30 points each, with st. pauli grabbing 8 and 5 from modric and gallas in the gameweek finale in a late point grab to avoid the drop.

 

This gw's elimination and a quick recap of the first half of the second group of eight to be eliminated:

21. Cassville United 27 - [20 points - gw19]
22. In off the post - [24 points - gw18]
23. London St. Germain -- [30 points - gw17]
24. ColdDogSoup - [29 points - gw16]

Cassville sits reasonably strong at #6 of all of the Rocks squads, but looks somewhat dormant with the last move coming back in September and auto-sub kicking in on a weekly basis to remove the injured Schwarzer. I'm not complaining and actually wondering at this point if it might make more sense to make fewer moves......

For owners who hadn't scanned the scores, Cassville's 20 will be a relief, as FC Touchline Ban, Lees Summit, and Pittsadelphia all ended the week on 23 points (with several other non-eliminated teams not making it to 30 -- Dynamo (25), Top Shelf (26), Pork Soda (27), and 352 Sizzle (29)).

The average score for our league teams of 36.03 is very low and it will be nice to see scores take a bounce northward as the second half of the season kicks off in a few hours.

20 teams left. Avoid elimination the next 4 weeks and you've made the top half!

 

20. BiggerBoat - [25 points - gw20]

And, just like that, the overall high flyer gets bounced from the eliminator, having sailed through previous gameweeks, often lapping the field. But, the eliminator can sometimes be cruel, and such is the case this week. It is also back-to-back eliminations for Dust, who had looked quite strong in this competition through most of 2011 but now find themselves right where they should be statistically, with 3 of the 13 eliminations. (For those tracking such things at home, VSR now stands alone as the only league with 6 teams left!).

Lee's Summit (31) ended up second from the bottom after all of the auto subs got processed, a third week in a row in the bottom 4 (aka the danger zone), but nothing wrong with living dangerously so long as you avoid the drop. Keysersoze (32) and Sasha Jrs (39) round out the bottom 4.

19 remain, including AC TIG, who put up a healthy 60 and appears to have the ship back on the right path. We are 3 eliminations away from the midway mark.

 

hmm, i suppose there is always a first time for everything... and, presumably a last time as well!!! hopefully just a blip on the radar and not an ominous sign of the end of the world approaching or something of the like.

no DE-Cup this year, but there's always next year, and, unlike some of us, you still have a regular season title (and promotion) to play for, so chin up.

 

from an early glance, Park Lane sits on 28, with 3 points coming in via auto sub. perhaps Walker has an outside shot, but bonus points look fairly unlikely (Walker for 1?), which would set the elimination bar for the week at 31 points if anyone is trying to figure out where they stand.

there are still several squads below 31 for the week, but many are already safe via auto sub and a few others are close with City players to come, so it will be a nervous 24 hours for Hotspur at the Lane. early rumors are that Harry and Co. are claiming to have desired to pull their application from this Cup before the season started, with an unnamed source quoting the gaffer as saying, "Put it in the trophy case? Get serious. I wouldn't even take a p-ss in it."

calls for confirmation and/or a more detailed statement were not returned.

 

unlikely or not, a few bonus points rolled in for Park Lane. apparently the new system is smarter than the rest of the world in identifying the talents of Andy Carroll, who grabbed 1 for 33 minutes work in a 0-0 draw!

and it does look to be enough to find safety for Park Lane, as a more extensive scan of the scores finds Jedi Padawans at 30 points and no players or autosubs to come, and would have been in trouble even without the curious bonus point awards. Park Lane may still end up with the Cup, whether it likes it or not!

while there were a couple of others with players to come today that would have made for an interesting day with a mark of 35, 30 presents a different contest entirely, with I believe Thiku being the only one who could still give it a run if a red card or missed PKs should come into play....

Thiku - at 28, with Al Habsi, Nasri, and Silva(c) to play - it could be interesting - if Nasri or Silva don't play, Fletcher comes on with big autosub points as Thiku will otherwise be left to ponder the choice of Yak over Fletcher (which definitely looked good on paper)