NSB PICK EM 2021 FINALE FRIDAY 24th AND FRIDAY 31st DECEMBER 2021

[Tatabanya]

Honestly at this point anyone outside the top half dozen places or so might as well throw caution to wind, go for that long shot hail Mary draw or x5 if you got any left.. Nothing left to lose. Deeply tempted myself.

Believe it or not, I have been thinking a lot about the issue of draws these days. Despite the funny narrative that has always characterized this old fart on the subject - not to mention my avatar - I honestly asked myself: is it fair that a person who has, say, 59% correct picks has a chance to win the League just by getting a couple of draws by pure luck? True, this is very unlikely to happen... but it COULD happen. So I thought: wouldn't it be better, out of some sort of justice to those who are REALLY good pickers, to abolish the draw as an option and simply consider wins and losses valid for the ranking? Of course, in case of a draw, everyone's stats would remain the same.

What do you guys think?

[Citizen Koba]

Believe it or not, I have been thinking a lot about the issue of draws these days. Despite the funny narrative that has always characterized this old fart on the subject - not to mention my avatar - I honestly asked myself: is it fair that a person who has, say, 59% correct picks has a chance to win the League just by getting a couple of draws by pure luck? True, this is very unlikely to happen... but it COULD happen. So I thought: wouldn't it be better, out of some sort of justice to those who are REALLY good pickers, to abolish the draw as an option and simply consider wins and losses valid for the ranking? Of course, in case of a draw, everyone's stats would remain the same.

What do you guys think?

Yeah it's an issue I have thought of and kina mentioned a few times in the pre-season discussion threads for the precise reasons you say... A draw pick is more or less a dice roll.

My suggestion was in fact to incorporate draws into the CLOSE bracket, although obviously you wouldn't get the points for the correct winner only those for method and detail, so in the event of a Draw players who picked DEC CLOSE for either fighter would receive 20 points with 10 points to anyone who picked a different kind of decision.

Sentiment when I've raised it previously seemed to be players rather liked the idea of a potentially game changing high scoring Draw pick so I've stayed with that, but anyway it's hard to say how well it would have worked prior to introducing the 3 different types of CLOSE picks (my idea was to introduce it at the same time as introducing the 0 - 6 point CLOSE pick.

[Tatabanya]

Yeah it's an issue I have thought of and kina mentioned a few times in the pre-season discussion threads for the precise reasons you say... A draw pick is more or less a dice roll.

My suggestion was in fact to incorporate draws into the CLOSE bracket, although obviously you wouldn't get the points for the correct winner only those for method and detail, so in the event of a Draw players who picked DEC CLOSE for either fighter would receive 20 points with 10 points to anyone who picked a different kind of decision.

Sentiment when I've raised it previously seemed to be players rather liked the idea of a potentially game changing high scoring Draw pick so I've stayed with that, but anyway it's hard to say how well it would have worked prior to introducing the 3 different types of CLOSE picks (my idea was to introduce it at the same time as introducing the 0 - 6 point CLOSE pick.

Perhaps an acceptable choice would be leaving the draw option, but reducing its worth to something like 80 points, without a chance of using multipliers on it.

[Citizen Koba]

Perhaps an acceptable choice would be leaving the draw option, but reducing its worth to something like 80 points, without a chance of using multipliers on it.

Maybe but then the odds against a draw actually happening would probably all be render it redundant anyway... I mean who's actually gonna pick a 20/1 long shot dradraw when the rewards are only 2 - 4 times what you get for picking the favourite? I mean, few enough players - present company excepted - ever picked DRAWS anyway.

Guess maybe we could run em alongside each other (another suggestion Ive made in the past) with a slightly reduce DRAW score (maybe 80, 100 or 120) alongside draws also giving points to those who made DEC picks.

Funny I just had a look at the 2021 discussion thread and I don't mention it there that I saw though I did push through the Close / clear / wide idea. I do mention it a couple times in the 2020 discussion thread though and I'm pretty sure I did in 2019 too, wasn't received with particular enthusiasm either time though.

https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...-2020?t=837322

I mention it in both the OP and post #26

I (obviously) think it's a good idea but I've always tried to with what most players seem to want. What I'll do is run a players poll or something on this year's discussion thread (incoming probably boxing Day) see whether we can get any more support for it or any other ideas anyone got.

[Tatabanya]

Maybe but then the odds against a draw actually happening would probably all be render it redundant anyway... I mean who's actually gonna pick a 20/1 long shot dradraw when the rewards are only 2 - 4 times what you get for picking the favourite? I mean, few enough players - present company excepted - ever picked DRAWS anyway.

Guess maybe we could run em alongside each other (another suggestion Ive made in the past) with a slightly reduce DRAW score (maybe 80, 100 or 120) alongside draws also giving points to those who made DEC picks.

Funny I just had a look at the 2021 discussion thread and I don't mention it there that I saw though I did push through the Close / clear / wide idea. I do mention it a couple times in the 2020 discussion thread though and I'm pretty sure I did in 2019 too, wasn't received with particular enthusiasm either time though.

https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...-2020?t=837322

I mention it in both the OP and post #26

I (obviously) think it's a good idea but I've always tried to with what most players seem to want. What I'll do is run a players poll or something on this year's discussion thread (incoming probably boxing Day) see whether we can get any more support for it or any other ideas anyone got.

Whatever the choice, I'll have no problem in continuing my draw crusade

It was just a matter of justice for the professionals here

[keithj]

I like draws, think there's some strategy to them. I dislike x5 on underdogs - they're a big randomiser.

[Citizen Koba]

I like draws, think there's some strategy to them. I dislike x5 on underdogs - they're a big randomiser.

Duly noted, man. Obviously this is the first year we've had the x5 so I'll poll that too and see what most people think, but when I've raised the question of Draw picks in previous years seemed like most people wanted to keep em as they were more or less.

I'll be putting together a 2022 discussion thread in a coupla days anyway for anyone to bring up any ideas or suggestions they got or anything they didn't like or think could use some tweaking.

[SUBZER0ED]

Who the hell are these guys??

[NC Uppercut]

Duly noted, man. Obviously this is the first year we've had the x5 so I'll poll that too and see what most people think, but when I've raised the question of Draw picks in previous years seemed like most people wanted to keep em as they were more or less.

I'll be putting together a 2022 discussion thread in a coupla days anyway for anyone to bring up any ideas or suggestions they got or anything they didn't like or think could use some tweaking.

We need an update machine for Christmas!!! That would be a treat. I know you have had a lot of pressure having to update mostly solo.
Keep the Draw and 5X for the dreamers in us all!

[Citizen Koba]

Who the hell are these guys??

It really wasn't the ideal way to close out the year but I felt like I couldn't just call a halt like running into a brick wall halfway through December.

You should probably have heard of Petrov and Manzanilla, Petr is a 2 time world title challenger (Maidana and Flannigan) and won the 2014 Boxcino - although he's old now he's a pretty tough cookie for an amateur stepping up. Manzanilla has challenged once but has a solid win against Ceja. The two younger russkies were both ammy standouts - Batyrgaziev won Gold at Tokyo edging out Duke Ragan, Khariton hasn't quite reached those heights but has Silvered at the Eutopean Games and won a couple Golds at second tier tournies.

If you're short on research material from their brief professional careers you can find amateur footage of both of em quite readily on Youtube FWIW... Naturally both the younger ammies are favoured but neither Petrov nor Manzanilla are anyone's idea of a pushover and both represent the kinda step up which can easily turn into a trip up and faceplant for an inexperienced young fighter. We've seen it before... several times this year alone in fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khariton_Agrba