Thanks to all for a fun contest this year! I appreciate the kind thoughts in this thread. Turns out I am a Happy Camper: We had a nearly Full Moon by the campfire Saturday night and the Courage dominated the Thorns 3-0. I watched it on-demand on Lifetime today. It was the Courage smothering defensive play that amazed me: 90 minutes of relentless pursuit, cover, and re-cover. …..sometimes it is not so bad to watch a game when you know the score ahead of time…. As President Jed Bartlett used to say, “What’s next?”
Here's a final report that shows, for regular season game predictions, how predictors came out on a per game predicted table. On the left are the different scoring subcategories. The last three columns on the right are for total scores.
Well, I was afraid that my "score per game predicted" would have put me in a much lower position than the one I conquered in the "regular" rankings by not ever missing to make a prediction for any single match-day, but I see that I only drop from 4th to 6th! So, I am somehow happy with my moderate, under-robot-level skills.
While looking for something else, I noticed the final regular standings for 2018, with goal differentials. The goal differentials, with one minor exception, exactly matched the standings. You'll see three numbers for each team. The first is the # of games played (24). The second is the goal differential. The third is the team's accumulated points. Using goal differential as a ranking basis, only Seattle and Chicago would be reversed in order. LEAGUE STANDINGS RANK GP GD PTS 1 NC 24 36 57 2 POR 24 12 42 3 SEA 24 8 41 4 CHI 24 10 37 5 UTA 24 -1 35 6 HOU 24 -4 32 7 ORL 24 -7 30 8 WAS 24 -23 11 9 NJ 24 -31 9
ok... maybe it's just that I wasn't paying attention, but ...gulp! the delta between the courage gd and a top class 2nd place team! that is astounding!!