midweek for GW26 With many teams not fielding a full 11, I believe it breaks down as follows: ColdDogSoup --- 17 + Kudus BiggerBoat ------- 20 + Ward-Prowse Both teams on a strike, so both are looking at potential elimination. Edge to BiggerBoat give the slight lead and the PKs, but very much a toss up. Good luck to both of you!
FYI, BiggerBoat also has Areola and still looks to have a slight lead even with Kudus getting an assist. As always, midweek summaries are not official and actual scores on the system control. Still added time to play....
I am taking my autographed Salah African Cup replica ball and going home and none of you get to play...haruuumph...
GW26 is Champions Round week 7. CHAMPIONS ROUND – ColdDogSoup FC (22 points – gw26) **SECOND STRIKE--ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (4) = Journeymen (-), Glorydaze (-), Aviators (-), REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (3) = Parraraiders (gw22), BiggerBoat (gw23), blechs_dawgs (gw25)] *[Eliminated (2) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26)] The final showdown ended up ColdDogSoup (22) and BiggerBoat (24). As announced above, Lobo has taken his ball and gone home. It was always set to be a tricky week with LIV, TOT, CHE, and others not having a game and several players from those teams on rosters. And, for Lobo, first-choice captain Salah was injured and didn't have a game, so it was always going to be difficult. CDS only fielded 9 against only 8 from BiggerBoat, although CDS's 9 included frustrating late substitution appearances for the youthful MCI duo of Alvarez and Doku, so maybe that's only 7.66 players..... Had both started, played 60, and avoided yellows, the extra 3 points would have been enough. It's second GW in a row for DrH in the #2 position and this time it was very close. Kudus was knocking around for another return but it didn't materialize. As for the reporting gaffe and not spotting Areola in the midweek report, it ended up not altering the outcome, as the tiebreaker would have yielded the same outcome without the Areola points but a good reminder that the official score always controls. Note: While ColdDogSoup was already going to be on the wrong side of the tiebreaker if it came into play, I noted that he had played his wildcard. To clarify, while I've said that use of a chip is now the first wildcard, this does NOT apply to use of the wildcard and is referring to triple captain and bench boost only. My thinking: making transfers to save your team in the Eliminators--whether with the wildcard or taking points hits--is strongly encouraged and respected. And, given that the point hits aren't counted in the Eliminators, there is no advantage earned (for purpose of the Eliminators) by using the wildcard to avoid those point hits. So, if you still have your wildcard (or even if you don't) transfer away as necessary to avoid your strikes!!!
GW27 is Champions Round week 8. CHAMPIONS ROUND – blechs_dawgs (44 points – gw27) **SECOND STRIKE--ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (4) = Journeymen (-), Glorydaze (-), Aviators (-), REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (2) = Parraraiders (gw22), BiggerBoat (gw23)] *[Eliminated (3) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27)] The final showdown ended up blechs_dawgs (44) and Parraraiders (47). Parraraiders outscored dawgs on Monday with Rice (8) edging Saliba (6) and Jesus (1), and Parraraiders used autosub for N.Jackson (6). With that, the dawgs exit. There were a few higher strikes in the league round, but 44 is the highest score so far for a strike in the champions round. For the rest of the teams, Glorydaze, Journeymen, and BiggerBoat were in the 60s, Starboy in the 70s, and Aviators shared a gold medal at 81. We are down to 6 teams left.....
GW28 is Champions Round week 9. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Journeymen (29 points – gw28) **FIRST STRIKE Summary: *[No Strikes (3) = Glorydaze (-), Aviators (-), REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (3) = Parraraiders (gw22), BiggerBoat (gw23), Journeymen (gw28)] *[Eliminated (3) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27)] Journeymen (29) finally stumble after an extended superb run of GWs. All of the other teams were in the 50s. Fortunately, it's just a first strike. Given the limited number of games, gw28 will not count for the eliminator. We'll resume in gw30.
GW29 did not count for the DE-Cup given the limited number of real games. These don't count for anything in the Double Eliminator, but for those interested in the scores of the remaining teams: Parraraiders ---- 6 Glorydaze ------- 9 Aviators --------- 11 BiggerBoat ----- 11 Starboy XI ------ 20 Journeymen --- 25 Current strike count in the post above. Strikes resume in GW30. Unless someone wins with no strikes so that we finish early, we've lost a week due to GW29, so it looks like the Super-Eliminator will now be a one GW showdown (unless Journeymen wins, in which case they sweep and take the Super-Eliminator by default).
I'll update the board later but here are the gw30 scores: Aviators 26 Glorydaze 32 BiggerBoat 35 Starboy XI 41 Parraraiders 49 Journeymen 61 Looks like a first strike for Aviators. On to gw31....
Catching up.... After skipping GW29, the scores for GW30 are in the post above. GW30 was Champions Round week 10. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Aviators (26 points – gw30) **FIRST STRIKE Summary: *[No Strikes (2) = Glorydaze (-), REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (4) = Parraraiders (gw22), BiggerBoat (gw23), Journeymen (gw28), Aviators (gw30)] *[Eliminated (3) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27)]
And GW31 was Champions Round week 10. CHAMPIONS ROUND – BiggerBoat (24 points – gw31) **SECOND STRIKE--ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (2) = Glorydaze (-), REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (3) = Parraraiders (gw22), Journeymen (gw28), Aviators (gw30)] *[Eliminated (4) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31)] Glorydaze (28) had to check the scoreboard a couple of times, but ended up 3rd from the bottom. Parraraiders (24) and BiggerBoat (24) were tied for low score. Neither used a chip, so we proceed to the next tiebreaker, removal of doubled captaincy points. BiggerBoat had Son (2) while Parraraiders had Salah (1). Parraraiders survives. We are down to 5. In addition to the 3 listed above, the other scores this week: Aviators (35), Journeymen (47), Starboy (92).
And GW32 was Champions Round week 12. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Glorydaze (35 points – gw32) **FIRST STRIKE Summary: *[No Strikes (1) = REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (4) = Parraraiders (gw22), Journeymen (gw28), Aviators (gw30), Glorydaze (gw32)] *[Eliminated (4) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31)] GW32 scores: Glorydaze ----- 35 Parraraiders --- 43 Journeymen ---- 54 Starboy ---------- 60 Aviators ---------- 70 35 is on the higher side, but the highest strike for the round remains at 44. We'll see if it pushes higher in these final weeks. Despite some close calls, Glorydaze has navigated the waters so as to have not previously had a strike, so this is just strike #1. It leaves Starboy XI as the only team with no strikes with more eliminations looming.
GW33 = Champions Round week 13. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Aviators (43 points – gw33) **SECOND STRIKE ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (1) = REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (3) = Parraraiders (gw22), Journeymen (gw28), Glorydaze (gw32)] *[Eliminated (5) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31), Aviators (gw30,gw33)] GW33 scores: Aviators ---------- 43 Journeymen ---- 45 Parraraiders --- 61 Glorydaze ----- 62 Starboy ---------- 66 Aviators (43) exits the competition with a second strike. The 43 is one point shy of the highest strike for the round (44). The weekly tallies continue to rise, and presumably we'll hit a new high as we head to some double gameweeks (and some "chips") down the stretch. Aviators got the captaincy right (at least of its players in the starting 11 with Haaland (10*2)) but left Mitchell (12) and his assist, clean sheet , and bonus points on the bench, opting instead for four other defenders who totaled 5 points (White (5), Mykolenko (-1), Gabriel (0), and Dalot (1)). Also, Neto (0) vs MUN was preferred to Alison (3) vs CRY (in fairness, Alison had missed the last 8 games, but starting him and having autosub step in would have avoided the strike), and with the benefit of hindsight, the 17 points on the bench could have made for a nice bench boost. As it was, Aviators still looked to be in decent shape when Monday morning started with 44 points and Mykolenko still to play before he put up the -1, with Starboy on 34 points with "just" Gusto and Palmer to play. We now know how that ended, with Palmer fighting off his teammates for the late PK to secure the double brace and take Starboy from bottom of the pack to the top in DE-Cup scoring for the week (and in the All Rocks table as well for the season). And, Journeymen started the day with 45 with Pickford set to come in via autosub, so it was always going to be tight between Aviators and Journeymen with their score so close and each holding an Everton asset (query if there should be a new scoring rule to give -3 for the "negative assist" in cases such as Pickford's "pass" to Palmer for goal 3 of 4.....). Journeymen stays alive in pursuit of the eliminator sweep, and Starboy XI remains the only team in the DE-Cup without a strike. And we are down to 4 teams. Reminder that points from chips count, but will be removed as the first tiebreaker in the event of a tie. So, use wisely if you still have them. And reminder that we use the 3-2-1 scoring for top 3 in the cups when determining the top cup performers for the Shield competition at the beginning of next season, so points are on the line in that with the next elimination......
GW34 = Champions Round week 14. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Parraiders (51 points – gw34) **SECOND STRIKE ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (1) = REVEALED: Starboy XI (-)] *[1 Strike (2) = Journeymen (gw28), Glorydaze (gw32)] *[Eliminated (6) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31), Aviators (gw30,gw33), Parraraiders (gw22,g24)] GW33 scores: Parraraiders --- 51 Glorydaze ----- 52 Journeymen ---- 86 Starboy ---------- 94 Chips, captaincy decisions, autosubs, VAR, and more. For the second week in a row, Glorydaze edged Parraraiders by 1 point. While it was a battle for 2nd from the top in GW33, it was a battle to avoid a second strike and elimination in GW34. Glorydaze opted for Robertson (3) rather than Jota (12) for captaincy. Going with more predictable minutes makes sense, but the points fell to Jota, even though he picked up another injury and only played in 1 of the 2 games. With Trippier and Rashford not playing, that meant Elanga and Akanji would come off the bench and gave Glorydaze the MCI duo of Akanji and Alvarez in the final game. Meanwhile, Parraraiders was wondering what might have been, with triple captain Salah bench for game 1 and ending with 3*3 for the double gameweek. But all was not lost given Glorydaze's Robbo decision, and going into the final game, Parraiders held a lead of 47 to 40 (factoring in 2 autosub points for a second non-playing Trippier), and Parraraiders had the Brighton trio of Dunk, Gross, and Wellbeck to play. 7 points and 3 players vs 2 players isnt a horrible place... But a late Alvarez goal while Akanji held on for a clean sheet despite a dubious non-call for what could/should have been a Brighton penalty meant 6+6 for Glorydaze to get to 52, while the MCI goals meant a 0 for Dunk to go with 2+2 for non-scoring Gross and Wellbeck, leaving Parraraiders on 51. With Parraraiders playing the triple captain, Glorydaze would have had the tiebreakers, so it's 2 points short for Parraraiders after a deep and long run into the champions round. Parraraider's strike with 51 points sets a new high mark in the champions round, and is the second highest score to get a strike in the competition this year (behind Aviator's 58 in the league round). Journeymen and Starboy continued to take care of business. And, with that, we're down to 3 teams. Starboy still has no strikes and continues to look to wrap up the champions round a week early with another top score in gw34, while Journeymen are still alive to sweep the eliminators. Good luck in gw35.
A midweek look in on gw35, with just 1 game (CHE_v_TOT) to play on Thursday..... --Journeymen have 91 points and are safe in the DE-Cup this week and have probably locked a gold medal just for fun as well as reclaimed the top spot in All Rocks (at least for now). Triple cap on Isak for 13*3 worked out well, and still has a second game coming from Richarlison --Glorydaze has no players remaining and will add 2 points from Elanga via autosub for Rashford or Calvert-Lewin to go to 50. No other points on the bench, so the second autosub won't add anything. The big score for Glorydaze was top scorer Gordon(C) for 10*2! Well played, with Robertson(9) and Akanji(8) contributing as well. --Starboy has 30 points, will get 1 from Saliba via autosub for Foden, to go 31, and still has Johnson and Palmer(C) to play their second game on Thursday. So, Starboy needs 19 or more likely 20 from Johnson and Palmer(c) to avoid a first strike and to instead send Glorydaze packing with a second strike. As for 19 vs 20, neither team played a chip, so first tiebreaker is removing captaincy points, while second is removing autosub points. Palmer carries 2 points from the first game, against Gordon's 10. With 8 or fewer in this next game, Starboy wins the tiebreaker and will survive with 19 more points, while at 9 or above for Palmer, Glorydaze wins the tiebreaker and Starboy will need to add 20 to win outright. So, most likely, if it's a tie, edge to Starboy, because if Palmer gets 9 or more, it's likely not going to end up tied...... As for odds of Starboy coming back, if Johnson just gets 2 points, it would mean a score of 9*2 from Palmer. Palmer comes in off a 2 in the first game of GW35 (seeing a fine GK save to prevent a late goal) and was an illness scratch in GW34, but then had double digit tallies in 4 of the 5 GWs prior to that (and 5 of the prior 8). For better (Starboy) or worse (Glorydaze), Palmer seems to be a bonus points magnet when he scores, so the result may hinge on whether Palmer scores and is at best a toss up at the moment. (Note: Unclear if Johnson or Richarlison get the start if Werner is out following his injury sub in the last game, but if Johnson gets on the score board, even a Palmer assist may be enough....)
It's in the 87th minute. B.Johnson has been subbed out with his 2 points today. Palmer has a fantasy assist and 1 clean sheet point, to sit on 6*2. He needs 3 more points for Starboy to avoid the strike.... An assist or goal? Not currently in line for BPs. Glorydaze looking to sneak through a few final minutes.... Edit: 6 minutes of added time...
GW35 = Champions Round week 15. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Starboy (45 points – gw35) **FIRST STRIKE Summary: *[No Strikes (0) = ---] *[1 Strike (3) = Journeymen (gw28), Glorydaze (gw32), REVEALED: Starboy XI (gw35)] *[Eliminated (6) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31), Aviators (gw30,gw33), Parraraiders (gw22,g24)] Final scores: Starboy ------- 45 Glorydaze ----- 50 Journeymen -- 93 Most of the details are in the posts above leading up to and during the final game. Starboy needed a Palmer goal, and only ended up with an assist (from a shot off the crossbar), and Glorydaze continues to successfully navigate the DE-Cup waters while facing a serious relegation battle in Small. With that, everyone has a strike. So, we will have eliminations in each of GW36 and GW37 to determine the champion. Also, with the DE-Cup now set to go to GW37, the Super-Eliminator will be a single week showdown in GW38 (unless it's Journeymen vs Journeymen!!!). Starboy and Glorydaze will be looking to have their say....
Midweek look in at GW36..... Starboy is in the clear; Glorydaze will have 56 once 3 autosub points are processed; and Journeymen has 55 with Højlund to play. Glorydaze has the tiebreaker vs Journeymen, so if Højlund gets: -- 1 or fewer, Glorydaze survives or -- 2 or more, Journeymen survives Højlund has only 2 yellow cards on the season, and I believe only has 1 start that didn't get to minute 60, so edge to Journeymen. But unless/until an assist or goal comes, this will be in play. Good luck!
Højlund has made it past 60 minutes with no cards (and no goals or assists either). At this point, H just needs to avoid a card and Journeymen advances to the DE-Cup final. Journeymen is hoping he's just subbed out! Starboy awaits the winner, while Glorydaze is frantically digging through old emails looking for the Lobo-inspired-special-hex-spell as this is going to require a late miracle to avoid elimination.
GW36 = Champions Round week 16. CHAMPIONS ROUND – Glorydaze (56 points – gw36) **SECOND STRIKE--ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (0) = ---] *[1 Strike (2) = Journeymen (gw28), REVEALED: Starboy XI (gw35)] *[Eliminated (7) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31), Aviators (gw30,gw33), Parraraiders (gw22,g24), Glorydaze (gw32,gw36)] Final scores: Glorydaze ----- 56 Journeymen -- 60 Starboy ------- 81 As noted in the final scores, the midweek report missed an autosub that Journeymen had coming in (Pickford(3)), so it wasn't as close as discussed above. Glorydaze will have to settle for 3rd Place in the DE-Cup in a frustrating week that saw GW34's bust of a captain Robertson continue to put up big numbers in GW35 & 36 with the armband moved elsewhere, and see a monster Defender tally from Mitchell stranded on the bench. Nonetheless, a phenomenal run to get to the final 3 while currently sitting in a relegation spot. And, with just one week now to go, Glorydaze(56) exits with the highest score to receive a strike in the Champions Round 2023-24. And, that now sets up a GW37 showdown for the Double Eliminator Cup--Starboy vs Journeymen. Both have a strike, so the low score will be eliminated and the high score with raise the Cup. Then, looking to GW38.... --If Journeymen wins the GW37 showdown, Journeymen also takes the Super Eliminator Cup and becomes the first team to sweep the Eliminator Cups. --If Starboy wins the GW37 showdown, then Starboy get the DE-Cup, and then the two teams will line up and do it again in GW38 for the SE-Cup. Meanwhile, Starboy (2063) and Journeymen (2058) are separated by just 5 points at the top of the All Rocks table, and they'll be battling for that over the next couple of GWs as well.
Midweek look in of the GW37 double gameweek...... 9 games have been played in the final gameweek of the DE-Cup, with a 10th game to play on Monday, plus 4 bonus games during the week. Starboy (BenchBoost activated) 65 points +Haaland(c)(tot) +Walker(tot) +TAA(avl) +Foden(tot) +Palmer(bha) +Wilson(mun) +Darwin(avl) +Pope(mun) +J.Murphy(mun) +B.Johnson(MCI) Journeymen (BenchBoost activated) 55 +Isak(c)(mun) +Dalot(NEW) +Gvardiol(tot) +Gross(CHE) +Richarlison(MCI) +Hojlund(NEW) +Watkins(LIV) +Luis Diaz(avl) +Virgil(avl) Note 1: These two teams have no duplicate players! I'm sure there must have been some small bits of duplication along the way that have since been transferred out, but they're the top 2 teams in All Rocks and they've done it with completely different squads! Very interesting! Note 2: There's still a lot of players and points to come this week. Starboy has 10 to play, including a captain, while Journeymen has 9 to play, including a captain. Two of Starboy's 10 (Wilson and Pope) didn't play in Newcastle's first game of the week, so (a) their minutes are in question OR (b) their rested and ready to go, Journeymen's Richarlison is flagged with the orange color as part of his explanation for not playing in game 1. If all of the 3 miss the second game, then it's 8v8 with Starboy holding a 10-point edge. Note 3: With both teams playing the bench boost, the first tie breaker (did you play a chip?) is a wash given the way that I've previously worded it, and we'll proceed to the next tiebreaker (removing captain's points in the event of a tie). At the moment, Haaland and Isak are tied at 2*2=4 with both having a game still to play. Note 4: IF it ends up tied and IF Haaland and Isak remain tied, then we may have a mess as the next two tiebreakers -- removing autosub points and calculating unused points on the bench aren't applicable with bench boost in play! Before announcing what we'll do (I have decided on what we'll do), I'm going to leave it to the managers to ensure that one of them wins it outright!
GW37 = Champions Round week 17. DE-Cup Winner = REVEALED: Starboy XI The final table: CHAMPIONS ROUND – Journeymen (82 points – gw37) **SECOND STRIKE--ELIMINATED Summary: *[No Strikes (0) = ---] *[1 Strike (1) = REVEALED: Starboy XI (gw35)] *[Eliminated (8) = Morning Glory (gw20,gw24), ColdDogSoup FC (gw21,gw26), blechs_dawgs (gw25,gw27), BiggerBoat (gw23,gw31), Aviators (gw30,gw33), Parraraiders (gw22,g24), Glorydaze (gw32,gw36), Journeymen (gw28,gw37)] Final scores: Journeymen -- 82 Starboy ------- 117 Not a lot of drama from the midweek games, as Starboy XI held the lead and then pulled away with the triple MCI strategy paying off with big points and an all around strong performance with only 2 of the starting 11 scoring less than 5 points. But, with 2 no-shows on the bench and only 8 points from the Bench Boost, they may still have to answer a few questions..... As the BE-Cup and DE-Cup champions, Journeymen and Starboy will now meet in GW38 for a one week showdown for the Super-Eliminator Cup!!!
Journeymen vs Starboy Starboy vs Journeymen All Rocks title, SE-Cup, Golden Boot, Rothman's are all up for grabs.....
The Super-Eliminator was a single match showdown this season, with Starboy defeating Journeymen for the second week in a row, to grab the SE-Cup to go with last GW's DE-Cup victory. Final score was very close: Starboy ------------ 56 Journeymen --- 53 Starboy gave the armband to Haaland rather than Foden, missing out on a massive haul. While Journeymen went Saka(c) and Watkins(vc), missing out on Isak, and then burying Dalot in the middle of the bench. There's always room for second guessing in close games but hard to go against the players who carried you all season. Congrats to both teams on a great season and we'll see if either can repeat next year.....