The BE-Cup is back -- "You don't have to be first! Just don't be worst!" Immunity: BE-Cup immunity has again been awarded based on last season's results in league standings and the eliminators (using the same award system as recent years): 3 gws - Journeymen (Small 1st) 2 gws - Aviators (VSR 1st), Starboy XI (Sand 1st), and n/a (SE-Cup winner) 1 gw - n/a (Small 2nd), ColdDogSoup (VSR 2nd), FC Epikoinis (Sand 2nd), and n/a (SE- Cup runner-up*) The SE-Cup winner (Starboy) and runner-up (Journeymen) already had immunity based on their league standings and you cannot run multiple immunities consecutively, so there are fewer teams with immunity this season. But, one does play a role in GW1, so surely @DrHeckle will have something to say about it.... Tiebreakers: 1. Did any team use a chip (triple captain, bench boost, wildcard, etc.)? Edge to the non-chip user(s), and the additional points will be removed as the first tie breaker (i.e., points from players picked up via wildcard will be removed as will the tripling of captaincy or bench boost points, with a decision to be made about the mystery chip once it is unveiled (if it can be used at all in our leagues)). 2. Captaincy points -- which team scored more points without captain points being doubled. 3. Auto-subs -- which team scored more points without the benefit of auto-subs. 4. Bench scoring -- which team had more points scored by its bench (after any auto-subs are processed). If still tied, 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 that GW and an extra team will be eliminated the following week.
24. Real Newark - [30 points; GW1] Only 5 teams had immunity in GW1, and one of those five needed it! ColdDogSoup stumbled out of the gate upon the return to the top division. Even with two auto-subs kicking in, @lobomojo managed just 29 points to end up with the bottom score of the opening week. But immunity kicked in for CDS, as last year's 2nd place team in VSR. So, we turn to the next lowest score, which also was in Small Rocks, to find Real Newark at 30 points. 6 points from Saliba and Bernardo were the top scores for Real Newark, while @bobfest left 11 points from Wissa on the bench. "We picked him up in the 12th round. It was never the plan to get him in this week. He's certainly given us something to think about as we move forward." Dangerzone was Kopite Jrs (33), Soccer Steve (35), and Living in Dreamland (39). CDS just had immunity for 1 week (along with FC Epikoinis), so they are now both at risk as we head to GW2. Starboy and Aviators have 1 more week of immunity, while Journeymen will be safe for 2 more weeks. Plan accordingly.
First Quarter -- The First 6 Eliminated 23. Morning Glory - [30 points; GW2] 24. Real Newark - [30 points; GW1] It is an early BE-Cup departure for Morning Glory, even with Robinson (7) and TAA (6). Robinson's and TAA's contributions ended up being over 40% of Morning Glory's total as 1s, 2s, and 3s from the rest add up to a total of 30 points. Note: for the second week in a row, 30 is the "elimination" number. Dangerzone was Kopite Jrs (31), FC Epikoinis (33), and DizzyAndDaffy (34). It's two dangerzones in a row for Kopite Jrs, and with 4 teams squeezed in between 30 and 34, one of the tighter finishes we've had in a while. Going into the final game, Morning Glory trailed Kopite Jrs by 2 but had TAA and Szoboszlai up against Kopite Jrs' Konate. With the defenders presumably matching each other if not tilting slightly in Morning Glory's favor, the odds looked okay for Morning Glory, as an additional midfielder point for a clean sheet would send Kopite Jrs packing. However, a Szoboslai yellow card canceled out that additional point and meant that the two teams would be even with their two LIV defenders squaring off. Still a reasonable position for Morning Glory, but then TAA gets pulled after 71 minutes while Konate sneaks in for one bonus point -- the critical one point margin of survival for Kopite Jrs. Aided by Journeymen's successful triple captain play, the All Rocks scoring average for GW2 jumped up to 56.1 from 49.0 in the opening week.
First Quarter -- The First 6 Eliminated 19. 20. 21. 22. DizzyAndDaffy - [23 points; GW3] 23. Morning Glory - [30 points; GW2] 24. Real Newark - [30 points; GW1] To revisit the Small Rocks draft, with pick 4, the then-manager went with Foden rather than the more conventional Saka pick. We're three weeks in and Foden has yet to play while Saka sits 5th among the midfielders with 24 points. With the inherited top pick Foden missing from the MCI roster again, it's another rough week for DizzyAndDaffy (23), who see a quick exit from the BE-Cup. Captain Odegaard blanks, while Zinchenko, Martinelli, and Gakpo only see substitute minutes. The always active TAA scored early only to have it called back due to an odd-looking but correct offside call against Salah -- but a defender goal for TAA might have made the BE-Cup difference for D&D. Dangerzone: blechs_dawgs (29), BiggerBoat (31), Lokomotiv (31), and Tangers (31). First visits to the dangerzone for all three. As a carrot for those already eliminated as well as those of us whose teams are struggling and soon to be eliminated, a second chance will come soon as the Double Eliminator Cup will start in GW5....