changes to bonus points in the Arsenal game give Central Park Rangers the additional point needed to move out of the danger zone. otherwise, the results stand.
Congrats to FC Touchline Ban for his Century this week. Awesome performance and a massive climb in the All Rocks Table!
20. Tyrant FC [26 points; gw19] danger zone was Top Shelf (30), Vegas (33), FC Springfield (34) and FC St Pauli (34) this was only elimination #2 for Dust
"Round 2 -- All About The Tiebreakers & Increasingly Higher Eliminations" 18. Smash ya out da park [25 points; gw21] 19. Sasha Juniors [36 points; gw20] **tiebreaker** 20. Tyrant FC [26 points; gw19] Catching up on a couple of weeks here. I had a thought about giving an extra point or two in gw20 to fellow Cup runners, but decided that I'd save the creation of those kinds of special rules for instances where they are really needed (i.e., when they impact me!). The end result is that Sasha ended up tied with Dr. Heckle's Bigger Boat squad at 36, It was going to set a new mark for the highest score by a team while being eliminated, edging the 34 from Nellie in gw17 that was then bested by the 35 from Glorydaze in gw 19. It was also going to be the 3rd tiebreaker in this second group of 8. I haven't gone back to scour old scoresheets, but I don't recall this many tiebreakers in any entire season, let alone during this tight of a timeframe. In the end, Dr. H edged Tarv by 1 point on the first tiebreaker of captain points (RVP (6) > Santi (5)), and with that Tarv's BE-Cup pursuit came to an unceremonious end. From Dr. H, "I was surprised that we were in this situation in the first place. We've hit a dry spell, but we're still the best in the league, and by "we", I'm referring to Bigger Boat, not any of the 7 other teams that my octopus tentacles manage. Haha. Did I say tentacles? I digress. Sasha has RVP and will get no sympathy from me. We stayed focus and did what we needed to survive, and that's all you can sometimes ask of the lads." From Sasha, "Bah. Humbug. We never liked always these games squeezed together. At least we usually get to blame the weather. This time, we just didn't bring it." Bigger Boat's 36 points was joined in the gw20 danger zone by WhataBunchofMuppets (37), Lees Summit Rangers (38), and Smash ya out da park (19). Yes, that's five teams squeezed into a 2-point differential for the highest departure of the season. A very rough week to be the one departing. As for gw21, the question wasn't "who", but "when". Time finally caught up with Smash ya, who did quite well given their position at #31 in the overall table to make it this far, flirting with departure on numerous occasions with 5 danger zone appearances. This is the 3rd elimination for Dust, and the table is beginning to balance out in that sense. The danger zone was never in serious danger, with Kopite at 34, AC TIG at 35, and ThiKu at 37. A moment to catch our breath before things pick up again as we wait for the final team to join the second group of 8 and get ready for the midway point.
Oh that ****'*. GW 19 I go out of this due to having the lowest score of all of us and GW 20 I get a Gold medal in the other compo because I have the highest score of all of us. Think I get an F for consistency...
"A record margin" 17. Lee's Summit Rangers [18 points; gw22] 18. Smash ya out da park [25 points; gw21] 19. Sasha Juniors [36 points; gw20] **tiebreaker** 20. Tyrant FC [26 points; gw19] 21. Glorydaze FC [35 [points; gw18] 22. Real Mos Eisley [26 points; gw17] **tiebreaker** 23. Nellie Wanderers [34 points; gw16] **tiebreaker** 24. ChrisSuttonsSlippers [31 points; gw15] 25. In-A-Gadda-Da-Eden [27 points; gw14] 26. Rockville Gunners [29 points; gw13] 27. Pittsadelphia [15 points; gw12] 28. 1800-WC / Nomadic Funny Symbols [21 points; gw11] 29. 352 Sizzle [17 points; gw10] 30. Bally Boys FC [24 points; GW9] 31. FC Touchline Ban [20 points; GW8] 32. Wewunwunce [27 points; GW7] Another Sand departure leaves only two from Sand remaining. I don't know if it's a record or not, but the danger zone this week consisted of FC Weymouth (40), Central Park Rangers (47), and WhataBunchofMuppets! (49), so not even a hint of danger as all more than doubled this week's eliminee. To his credit, LSR had the prescient foresight to put Walter's own goals and PK miss on the bench, but lacked enough starters to keep him there and saw autosub take him below 20 on the week. But, otherwise not much excitement this week as we close out the first half of the competition. And then there were 16......
"Triple Tiebreakers and Highs & Lows" 15. FC St. Pauli [25 points; gw24] 16. Top Shelf [47 points; gw23] **3-way Tiebreaker** I've fallen a week behind, so here is a quick catch up. The second half of the BE-Cup and the third group of 8 kicked off in a crazy way. With the Rocks teams averaging 60.50 points per team, it was the highest scoring week of the season, besting the previous high by almost 5 points per team. There were a couple of lower scores from teams already eliminated, and it may be startling news for some to learn that the elimination mark landed at 47 points! Even more startling, for the first time that I can recall, we had 3 teams land on the elimination mark: Central Park Rangers, ThiKu Mariners, and Top Shelf. The first tiebreaker - removal of the doubled captain points - sends Top Shelf parking as he had Tevez on 5 points, while ThiKu had Gibbs on 3 and CPR sent out Ba for 1. The other team in the dangerzone for gw23 was Keysersoze at 50 points. For gw24, the pendulum swung to the opposite end of the spectrum, with the Rocks average coming in at 41.84. Not the lowest of the season, certainly on the lower side. FC St. Pauli ends the week on 25 and has bags packed for the bus ride home. The danger zone was WhataBunchofMuppets (28), Aviators (33), Keysersoze (34), and ThiKu (34). This makes it 7 danger zone visits in 18 weeks for ThiKu, who continues to live on the edge but to do enough -- just enough in some cases -- to get by. 14 teams remain.
With two games still to be played, bonus points still to be awarded, and auto-sub and/or vice-captains to come into play, here are teams that are under 30 points as of right now: FC Weymouth - - - 10 Aviators - - - 19 Central Park Rangers - - - 21 ThiKu Mariners - - - 23 AC TIG - - - 25 Keysersoze Wanderers - - - 26 WhataBunchofMuppets! - - - 28 On the flip side, Kopite is at 54 and Bigger Boat at 52 with the current high tallies and feeling comfortable that that they'll live to see another week in the BE-Cup. Good luck to all.
14. AC TIG [30 points; gw25] 15. FC St. Pauli [25 points; gw24] 16. Top Shelf [47 points; gw23] **3-way Tiebreaker** Danger zone was ThiKu (38), FC Weymouth (39), and Central Park Rangers (45). This was the third week in a row and the 8th on the season for ThiKu, who continues to flirt with danger but to continue to advance. The breakdown by league of the 13 teams that remain is as follows: VSR -- (Aviators, FC Springfield, Kopite, ThiKu) [4] Dust -- (Central Park Rangers, Keysersoze, Real Newark, WhataBunchoMuppets!) [4] Small -- (blech, ColdDog, Vegas) [3] Sand -- (Bigger Boat, FCWeymouth [2]
As we head to the final game of the GW this weekend, everyone has multiple players in action and only 1 of the current bottom 8 does not have a captain in play: FC Weymouth ---- 23 +2+2+0 +Suarez(c) +Gerrard blechs_dawgs ---- 24 +4 + Suarez(c) + Downing +Chico(injured) Real Newark ---- 25 +1 +Reina(c) +Henderson +Williams Keysersoze Wanderers ---- 29 +Gerrard(c) +GJohnson + Sturridge (or 5) +Chico(injured) VegasVirgins ---- 32 +Gerrard(c) + GJohnson +Rangel Kopite Juniors ---- 34 +JoseEnrique(c) + Carragher ColdDogSoup FC ---- 37 +Reina +Agger +DeGuzman ThiKu Mariners ---- 40 +DeGuzman(c) Taking into account autosubs that will be processed, Real Newark currently has the lowest score. Real Newark has other ways to climb out of the bottom, but will surely be looking for a Liverpool clean sheet from captain Reina. As each of Keysersoze, Vegas, Kopite, and CDS also have investment in the Liverpool defense, they would all also get a boost. If Liverpool can hold tight for the full 90 this time, then the battle shifts to Weymouth and the dawgs. With Chico now out injured, it's pretty straightforward as the Suarez(c) cancels itself out and Weymouth will be looking for Gerrard to outscore Downing by more than one point to overcome the current deficit. If it were to end in a tie, the dawgs would prevail on the 3rd tiebreaker, so Gerrard does need to outscore Downing by 2 or more. With the Gerrard PK miss from earlier in the GW currently being the difference, this could be a very intriguing finale. With that said, the presence of the armbands everywhere could lead to a big shake up here very quickly, and if Suarez scores and Liverpool gets the clean sheet, everyone's scores could easily end up in the 40s with any number of permutations on who ends up exiting this week. Good luck. Note: I believe it's all correct, but I take no responsibility for any errors in scores, autosubs, or remaining players... In the end, final scores will stand as shown on the official site.
13. ThiKu Mariners [44 points; gw26] 14. AC TIG [30 points; gw25] 15. FC St. Pauli [25 points; gw24] 16. Top Shelf [47 points; gw23] **3-way Tiebreaker** Currently sitting #29 out of 32 squads in the All Rocks table, it was quite an impressive run for ThiKu to get this far, aided along the way by a remarkable 8 danger zone appearances, including one that was decided on a tie-breaker. And, sitting 6th out of 13 with only one game to play, a score already in the 40s, and a captain still to play a second game, ThiKu had to have felt reasonably good about the team's prospects. But, the combination of Liverpool goals and defense had the bottom 7 soaring to make things interesting. As it was, I did make one error in the pre-finale summary, which is that I spotted Real Newark's 1 auto-sub point from Coutinho but failed to note that he would be available to play a second game. As it turned out, he did play, and score, and with Henderson limited to a cameo and Williams resting, Real Newark ended up needing every one of those points to come in safely at 45. Danger zone = Real Newark (45), Cold Dog Soup (51), and Vegas (55). The 44 points was the second highest elimination of the season (behind the 47 in gw23) and the Rocks average for the gw ended up at 60.16, just behind the 60.50 from that same gw23. That wraps the first half of the third group of 8. 12 teams remain, led by 4 from Dust, 3 from Small and VSR, and 2 from Sand. Of the teams remaining, Real Newark has the most danger zone visits at 4, while FC Springfield, Kopite, and my dawgs have the fewest at 1.
12. Real Newark [29 points; gw27] Real Newark took a hit and managed to field a full squad of 11, and picked up a healthy 7 from the newly acquired Nacho Monreal (I love that name). But, only ended up with 9 starters, with captain Podolski relegated to a 15-minute cameo from the bench. It was a tricky week, and an unfortunate time to end up sub-30. The danger zone was blechs_dawgs (35), FC Weymouth (37), and FC Springfield (41). While a 6-point margin isn't really that close, it is always scary to end up one spot from elimination and to realize that how simple it would have been to exit had that team not still been in the competition. Thankfully it was okay to be 11th this week; it won't be okay to be 11th next week. So, I'm back to the drawing board and thankful that the return of Luis Suarez will make it easy to resist any further temptations to captain Adebayor (well, at least until Suarez ends up with his next yellow card ban). I'm still not sure how Adebayer didn't score that header from 2 yards out or how he managed to miss the ball entirely when it unknowingly rolled off Caulker's back for an assist. I digress, but I still continue to see potential and am expecting really big things from him against Arsenal...... We're now one game away from the top 10, although the BE-Cup works in groups of 8 so still a few games to go to make the final group. Some tricky weeks ahead with the expected blanks in gw29, so manage accordingly and get your squads ready.
Haha... I thought I was the only one who saw Adebayor's "airswing" before the SigmondSeamonster" goal. To me , that was even funnier than his missed header from .8yards. But how good is Bale, and how good was that last goal. Apart from the fact I has spurs in the 3rd leg of my multi bet (Man City>Newcastle>Spurs) and that won me some nice $$$... that was some strike!
Bale is very good.... Very good. Bale nails the upper corner from 25-30 while surrounded by opponents. Adebayor hits the GK lying on the ground with an otherwise empty net from 0-2 yards with no one around. Crazy point swings right there. Got to see Bale in L.A. last summer. I don't know how good he can be, but he's physically impressive in person (and I'm comfortable saying that!).
Question? Does the Blechs Eliminator Cup take a week off with only 6 games this week, 12 teams? Assuming my calculations are correct and that FC St. Pauli dropped out at GW28, Here are the teams and the players they will have available: Of course this does not take into account multiple trades this week to complete a squad, two of which might be free if the manager did not make a transfer last week. MUN, MCI, CHE, ARS, FUL, WIG, WHU, EVE are the 8 teams without a game and you can imagine all the stars of these various teams who'll have no game this week. If there is no room in the schedule to skip this week, perhaps we could have the two lowest scoring teams next week eliminated to get back on track if the competition does indeed skip this week. Team Manager Players Left Players with no game GW29 blechs_dawgs Blech Blech Mignolet, Boswinga, Downing, Johnson, Adebayor, Suarez, Taarabt, Assou-Ekotto, Snodgrass 6 VegasVirgins Craig Powell Bunn, G Johnson, Harte, S Taylor, Gerrard, Morrison, Guthrie, Lukaku 7 Central Park Rangers Paul White Lloris or Green, Agger, Garrido, Bale, Downing, LeFondre, ? Dempsey 6 + Injured Sagna FC Weymouth Ryan Morrison Guzan, Cameron, Fonte, Caulker, Gerrard, McClean, Bannan, Suarez 7 Kopite Juniors Chloe Adams Jose Enrique, Carragher, Bassong, A Johnson, Walters, Crouch, Long 8 Aviators Sir Grandpa Hal Foster or Cesar, McAuley, Cameron, Bale, Gerrard, Gardner, Lukaku 7 BiggerBoat Chief Brody Bunn, Jose Enrique, Samba, Michu, A Johnson, 10 FC Springfield Coach Wiggum Bunn, Vertonghen, Michu, Taarabt, Torres, LeFondre 9 WhataBunchofMuppets! Raurie Bye Mignolet, O'Shea, Jose Enrique, Cameron, Sissoko, Lennon, Hernandez (SWA M), Cabaye, Remy 6 ColdDogSoup FC Lobo Mojo Reina, Wilson, Agger, Martin, Puncheon, Defoe, Lambert, Fletcher 7 Keysersoze Wanderers Liam Hall G. Johnson, Martin, Gerrard, A. Johnson, Lukuku 8 Plus Injured Kebe and Sturidge
I've always been a strong believer in that the competition should carry on without missing a week. Everybody can see the week coming up & if they are unlucky enough to have several players from the sides left in the FA Cup so be it. Remember the FA Cup is part lottery due to the draw so it can effect all teams in a manner of ways, hence it is down to the manager of each team to decide whether regular weekly points either side of that week are more important than surviving in the Eliminator. Woould this be up for discussion if both the Manchester sides been knocked out by & lesser sides involved where squad selections less affected, I think not .... So it should carry on as is & let fate take it's toll.
If you look at it another way ... if the 6 game week is skipped then the Game weeks when all the teams involved in the FA cup play twice will also have to be skipped as this gives an unfair advantage to everybody who has players with those clubs. As you can see skipping weeks opens a big can of worms ...... Let it be who survives this week will reap the benefits later on ....
Sonabert, Which of our drafted league teams are you the manager of? Just want to make sure you have a dog in this fight. In theory, I can find some rationale to your argument, that is, if we were an open team where everyone was available to all the managers. However, as we are a drafted leagues, albiet with teams from 4 leagues there are some duplication of players, I do not think it reflects fairly on the competition. I have a proposal, a proposed solution that makes the games this week count without unfairly rewarding the FA Cup quarterfinalists. Let's add the scores from this bastardized week with the scores of the following gameweek and then drop the two lowest two-week score total. Otherwise, I might be tempted to make a bunch of trades to field a full squad. However, that would expose my stronger players to swoops by the other managers. I, or any of the managers could make a choice to give priority to Blechs Eliminator Cup for one week at the expense of the following weeks and at the expense of our season end promotion and relegation battles, and at the expense of the 4 point penalty for the excess transfers. If I were hanging around 4th or 5th place with no likelihood of promotion or relegation, I might be willing to maximize for one gameweek. But why should we have to make that choice. On the other hand, I did the research, and most of the teams lose about 6-7 players. Add to that the injuries, and, without lots of trade activity, I don't think any team can field a full roster. The hardest hit would be BiggerBoat who is down to just 5 players for this week, followed by FC Springfield with only 6 players. I guess this is a chance for those of us chasing those two top teams to swoop for any players they discard, or make up lots of ground this week.
I manage the muppets ...... I say keep it simple, keep it as it is .... You sum it up best in your last sentence .." I guess this is a chance for those of us chasing those two top teams to swoop for any players they discard, or make up lots of ground this week.". Anybody taking part must know if you select players from the big clubs this will happen at somepoint. The managers with the top players have to make a crunch decision...... either Eliminator cup or league position. Sounds a bit like they are in Martinez's shoes ...... Even with a couple less players if you get your Capt. right that handicap can be overcome. Take Suarez this week , he more than made up for Aguero, Van Persie, Podolski added up. If he was to repeat anything is possible ... O' the beauty of the playing any Fantasy game ..... predicting the future .......
Let me put a quick end to this discussion, as the short answer is that the BE-Cup is still on. Everything you say about the decisions that may have to be made in our drafted leagues is correct, Hal, and it is consistent with arguments you made a few years ago (when the BE-Cup rule of at least 5 games was adopted). It's somewhat arbitrary to draw the line at 5 we play and 4 we postpone, but no more so than at 6, 7, or 8. With at least 5 games, there are at least 10 teams playing, and thus, at least in theory, there are enough players available for each fantasy team to field a full squad and even carry some subs if desired. It may present some issues for some teams, but conversely some teams may have planned ahead for this tricky week in recent transfers. Bottom line is that the BE-Cup rule is set, I'm not planning to revisit it, and barring the unforeseen postponement of some additional games, the BE-Cup will proceed in gw29. PS - The final announcements on gw28 aren't up yet, but you could have saved yourself a couple minutes in putting together the list of available players by not including Lobo.... PS2 - I will be completely shocked if the 10 teams still battling for the BE-Cup (following Lobo's announcement) don't do anything and everything possible to stay alive in the BE-Cup. Oh the irony of a mad scramble to pick up players from Norwich, Villa, QPR, and Reading. This will definitely be one of the more interesting weeks of the season. With that said, hit your transfer buttons. Game on.
11. ColdDogSoup FC [33 points; gw28] 12. Real Newark [29 points; gw27] The danger zone was Keysersoze (42), FCSpringfield (50), and Kopite (50). All of the remaining teams have at least 2 DZ visits this season, and Keysersoze ups the tally to 5, with all eyes focused on ThiKu's current high of 8. It's a side competition within the competition, but Keysersoze has indicated that they take it seriously and believe they have the heart ready to withstand a few more close calls. Getting back to the real business at hand, the BE-Cup is historically broken into groups of 8 and the next cutoff is to make the last quarter of the competition, but there is still something magical about the phrase "top 10" and Lobo could not be reached for comment but was none to pleased about bowing out before getting there. In a separate story (maybe), FCS reported an unexplained sensation of excessive heat in its feet as the GW headed into the final minutes. "It's hard to describe, but it was as if I was being poked with needles and then stepping on a hot fire. And then it would stop. And then it started all over again. It was definitely difficult to stay focused on the game but we knew what we had to do." Meanwhile, police are investigating reports that Lobo was seen walking into a dark closet with a bunch of dolls. Taking a look at the remaining squads by league, it is: Small (dawgs, vegas) VSR (Aviators, FCS, Kopite) Sand (BiggerBoat, FCWeymouth) Dust (CPRangers, Keyzersoze, WhataBunchofMuppets!) An impressive showing by Dust, although it looks a little different when ranked by current standings and overall points: 1. BiggerBoat (1598) 2. blechs_dawgs (1465) 3. FCSpringfield (1463) 7. Aviators (1413) 9. Kopite (1397) 10. FCWeymouth (1377) 12. Vegas (1373) 13. WhataBunch... (1364) 19. CPRangers (1276) 20. Keysersoze (1270) Over the course of almost 30 weeks, the 300+ margin between top and bottom translates into over 10 points per week, but averages are meaningless as we head into the fixture mess known as GW29 and, in any event, the BE-Cup isn't about finishing 1st but about not finishing last and it only takes one slip up to find one's bag packed and set outside the clubhouse door.
The Boat gets hoisted in the Dockyard for some massive repairs. Close examination sees that only Monreal & O'Brien were surplus to requirements ( and a 0pt hit),.... should be a mad scramble for those offcuts .. I am a bit worried that the lucky whipper snapper who picks up those players will simply zoom past me now Oh well, that gives me 7 players this week... hopefully just one of you hearty souls out there will do worse than me and Blech's cunning plan will fail ... it is always the tallest tree in the forest that all the birds crap on
No plan Doc, cunning or otherwise. Just sticking with the rules established a few years ago. When I'm ready to kick you out, I'll come up with something far more sinister than this.... As it is, FC Springfield looks to be the BE-Cup team hit hardest by the week. With Michu(c) going bust, Wiggum is in trouble. 9 autosub points will come from Bunn and Le Fondre on the bench, which puts FCS on 13 with only Vertonghen to play. They will see them finish the week with only four players! A clean sheet and goal from Vertonghen could see them push 30. It would look like teams will get by if they get to low 20s and it may require even less than that to reach safety. While in danger, FCS is far from eliminated given the autosub points in the bank. Several other teams are at risk and have work to do, but all of the other sub-20 teams have at least four players to play and most have a captain included in that mix. Here's the current scores, as well as autosub points and players to come: FCS = 4 + 9 + Vertonghen FCWeymouth = 4 + Suarez(c) + Gerrard + Caulker + Cameron Central Park Rangers = 6 + 2 + Bale(c) + Lloris + Agger + Downing + Dempsey(inj?) WhataBunch... = 11+ Sissoko(c) + J Enrique + Cameron + Lennon + Cabaye + Gouffran blechs_dawgs = 12+ Suarez(c) + BAE + Downing + Adebayor Kopite = 17+ J Enrique + Carragher + Walters + Crouch Aviators = 17 + Bale(c) + Cameron + Cabaye + Gerrard = = = = Keysersoze = 22 + Johnson +Debuchy + Gerrard + Sturridge BiggerBoat = 24 + Debuchy + JEnrique VegasVirgins = 27 + Gerrard(c) +Johnson + STaylor Apologies if I've missed any players, and keep in mind that in addition to tomorrow's games, there are still bonus points to come, so some may see bumps from the players who have already logged their minutes.