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Okay gentlemen, once again a new year of boxing is upon us and that means, of course, a new year of the world renowned NSB Pick Em! We muddled through 2023 without a masterthread on account of a number of health problems I had last year and well honestly just general procrastination and lack of motivation, but I think the masterthread was sorely missed as a place to just share general information, banter and suggestions about the game. Took me a while to get off my ass this year too but finally three weeks in to 2024 here we are. 8 years into the Pick Em and 7 since me and the rest of the CREW took the helm - feels like we been doing this thing just about forever and I think we've most definitely become a site fixture.
So... judging by the first Pick Em of 2024 most of you will be fully aware of what the Pick Em is all about and roughly how it works, we've seen a few new players joining in but most of you have seen it all before. However 2024 is bringing some really significant changes to the overall game structure even though weekly play is going to be much the same as in previous years so you may find it worth reading through my mass of waffle just to familiarise yourselves with the new format even if you are a veteran player from previous years.
So what is the PICK EM? In it's essence it's a straightforward prediction league. A year long competition where every week or two we put our knowledge to the test by predicting the outcomes of one or more boxing matches, and score points based upon the accuracy of our predictions. We accumulate the points and over time we come to see which of us are best able to reliably predict fights and those people go on to achieve eternal glory and bragging rights in the NSB PICK EM Hall of Fame (under construction)... oh... and possibly win a few $100 too...
The major change we've brought in after some discussion and proposals going back the last few years is to split the single year long competition which we've had since 2017 into 3 seasons of 4 months each. Each of the 3 seasons (running Jan 1st to April 30th, May 1st to Aug 31st and Sept 1st to Dec 31st) will be scored seperately and each will have it's own prize awards for the top scoring players of that season. In addition at the end of the year each players scores across all three seasons will be totalled and the player with the highest aggregate score will be declared NSB 2024 PICK EM CHAMPION and will receive an additonal prize of $300.
The aim of this change was mainly to reduce the amount of player attritIon over the course of the year, since it became apparent that once players fell significantly behind the leading pack on the scoreboards it was effectively impossible to claw there way back into the leadership postions after the first 6 months or so. In fact nder the old format even missing more than a handful of fights through illness or holidays or just the general crap life throws our way was generally enough to stop a player being in contention for one of the top slots. Whilst I think that most of us play just for the enjoyment it is a pretty big demotivator when you know you ain't even in with a shot.
So there we are - hopefully the new change will help keep players motivated and enthused throughout the year, ideally even bring in more new players as the year goes on, since it's no longer impossible to win aprize when you join later in the year. Really looking forward to see how it goes!
The NSB Pick Em's been running since 2017 when legendary 2017 POTY BrometheusBob decided to purloin the concept from a rival website - for which we will all be eternally thankful (cheers Bob
), but in early 2018 was taken over by a loose team of enthusiastic players - the self described PICK EM CREW - dedicated to keeping it running after real life compelled Bob to pay some attention to it. At this point it moved away from the original polled concept to the more labout intensive post-a-pick method that's still used today in order to keep the number of casual players to a managable number.
After numerous changes over the last 6 years the 2024 CREW is gonna remain the same as the final 2023 CREW, namely Citizen Koba (that'd be yours truly) from the UK andNC Uppercut from where it says on the tin, both veteran CREW who have been joined over the last couple of years by dedicated players and boxing enthusiasts Tatabanya SteveM and MikeyG (who started taking it upon himself to post up the video footage you'll find near the start of each Pick Em thread). Gotta say a huge thanks to all 4 you cos without you I wouldn't have been able to keep this thing going through last years difficulties.
You can ask any of us for help, advice or clarifications and mostly - asuming we're in a good mood - we'll be only too pleased to help you out. In additon, of course, we're always looking to improve the game so will always welcome positive suggestions and constructive criticism from you, the players. Right from it's inception in 2018 the ethos of the CREW has been to build a good community - with competion and banter of course, but mainly as a space where we can share our love of boxing, appreciate the fights, learn from one another and most of all, perhaps, have a bit of fun.
The game is open to all posters regardless of join date, post count or likes, there's no registration and ultimately no commitment, anyone can play as much or little as they wish and are free to join or drop out for any of the 3 seasons or even at any time during each of the seasons - although in general I'd expect most players to stick it out across all 3 seasons.
Details on how to make your picks are laid out below and will also be repeated in each Pick 'em thread throughout the year, but essentially follows the format of choosing Winner, method (KO or DEC) and detail ie how close a dec is or when a KO will happen.
In terms of fight selection after some discussion we've made a decison to lean more towards fights with closer odds over those with higher rankings for 2024. In the day to day this is unlikely to make a huge difference compared to previous years, it's more a case of when there is several fights to choose from that are all of similar merit and we need to choose between em we'll be more likely to pick closer odds fights even if the fighters involved may be a touch further down the rankings - as ever though we'll continuially seek player imput throughout the year to make sure the selection process accords with what a majority of players want to see included.
In general all title fights between fighters ranked in the top 10 per TBRB will be included plus any non-title fights of particular fan interest. Fights with guys in the top few places of the P4P rankings will also generally be included even when (as often happens) they are a prohibitive favourite. Should the WBSS introduce a new season during the course of 2024 we will make every effort to include the fights from that competition or indeed those from any event of similar ambition that should occur during the year.
In addition - as mentioned below - efforts will be made to give the players some say in which fights are chosen each month... generally through some type of polling or canvassing system, to try to ensure we're staying fairly close to the pace and game style that suits most of you.
So following that lengthy introduction it's down to business I guess. The following Ranking table will be kept up to date as best possible as the standard reference to the points and rankings of all the players in the 2022 Pick Em and should also be used to keep track of remaining multipliers and other relevent statistics. Inevitably there will be times when we (I) fall behind with the updating, for which I humbly beg your patience in advance:
NSB PICK EM 2024 SEASON START AND END DATES
SEASON 1: Jan 1st 2024 - April 30th 2024
SEASON 2: May 1st 2024 - August 31st 2024
SEASON 3: September 1st 2024 - December 31st 2024
NSB PICK EM 2024 SEASON 1 CURRENT RANKINGS
PLACEHOLDER
Note on Rankings: PICK EM players with the same number of overall points will now be ordered firstly by % of correct picks and then by the number of perfect picks they have achieved. In the event that any of the three highrest ranked players at the end of the year have the same number of overall points the same rule will apply and prizes awarded accordingly. In the event that any of the top ranked players cannot be seperated by % or Perfect picks the player with the fewest number of total picks shall break the tie. Further differentiation can be obtained by (in order) remaining x5, remaining x3, remaining x2 should it prove necessary...
2024 COMPLETED PICK EMS
2024 Pick Em Prizes:
(in case eternal bragging rights just ain't enough for you)
FOR EACH 4 MONTH SEASON
Winner: $200 payable by paypal
1st Runner Up: $100 payable by paypal
2nd Runner Up: $50 payable by paypal
FOR THE 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP OVERALL WINNER
$300
All prizes provided courtesy of Boxing Scene.
NB: Receiving a prize at any point in the year does not disqualify a player from winning again. In theory aplayer who scored the most points in each of the three season (and thus the highest overall aggregate) could walk away with $900 over the course of the year.
NSB PICK EM REIGNING CHAMPION (2023 WINNER)
ruedboy
Previous winners:
2022 - MikeyG
2021 - Keithj
2020 - Asgarth
2019 - Baltimore
2018 - otrocubiche
2017 - RockyB
GROUND RULES:
- Prior to each fight, a new thread will be made for the purpose of allowing people to record their predictions. Each thread will include a minimum of one fight but may include several. where more than one fight is included every effort will be made to sequence the games firstly by universal time zone (UTC) then by running order, ending with the main event in that time zone.
- Predictions must be made prior to the start of the fight. the opening bell of the bout shall be the cut-off point for allowable picks or modifications to picks. Whilst every effort will be made to notify the players in the thread at the moment of the cut off, if this is not possible other resources will be used to establish this moment as accurately as possible in the event of any dispute.
- You do not need to make a prediction for every fight to stay in the game, but obviously you will receive no points if you do not pick.
TERMINOLOGY
RESULT METHOD
KO = Will cover all type of stoppage wins - TKO, KO, DQ
DECISION = Will cover all type of decision wins - UD, MD, SD, TD
DRAW = If you believe the fighters are so evenly matched that a DRAW outcome is a reasonable possibility you may forego picking a winner and instead pick DRAW.
RESULT DETAIL
If you picked KO, either EARLY (1-4), MID (5-8) or LATE 9-12. (Or 1-3, 4-6, 7-10 for a 10 rounder).
If you picked DEC, either 'CLOSE', 'CLEAR' or 'WIDE'.
CLOSE = Total score difference is 9 points or fewer
eg. 116-113 on all three cards or closer. 115 - 113, 117 - 111, 114 - 114
CLEAR = Total score difference between 10 and 18 points.
eg. 117 - 111, 116 - 112, 116 - 112
WIDE = Total score difference of 19 points or greater
eg. Wider than 117-111 on all three cards
If the fight is a 10 round fight or ends in a technical decision, the cutoff lines of 9 pts and 18 points are scaled down to the number of rounds fought so that CLOSE is ≤0.75R and WIDE is >1.5R - rounded to the nearest whole - where R is the number of rounds fought
so WIDE for a 10 round fight will be wider than 15 points (eg 97-93, 98-92, 98-92) and CLOSE will be a total split of 8 points or fewer
In the event of a fight being Cancelled, No Decisions, No Contests or Technical Draws under 4 rounds (under those jurisdictions which use such rulings) the Pick Em will be declared null. Multipliers will not have been considered used and the fight will not be counted with regards to the number of picks made or accuracy percentage stistics although for the purposes of assigning numbers to the Pick Ems the bout will still be included.
MULTIPLIERS
Every player will have the option to use optional multipliers throughout the game when they feel especially confident of their prediction. It can also allow players who joined late an opportunity to get in the game by scoring a big pick.
2X = Get twice as many points for this prediction. You will receive three of these at the start of each 4 month season
3X = Get triple the points for this prediction. You will receive two of these at the start of each 4 month season
5x = Get five times the regular score for this prediction. You will receive one of these at the start of each 4 month season
Multipliers can only be played on fighters whose aggreagate odds as indicated on the weekly Pick Em thread are +100 or greater - ie on the Bookies' underdog. On the rare occasions neither fighter has odds of +100 or greater no multiplier may be played on that fight.
At the beginning of each 4 month season each active player will receive multpliers as specified above. At the end of each 4 month season any unused multipliers will be declared void and discarded. There is no carry overs.
ODDS
Every effort will be made to obtain accurate odds for each fight in the PICK EM based on an average of odds from a number of different bookmakers on the comparison site proboxingodds.com. The time point will be the point at which the thread is first posted unless no odds are available at that time in which case every effort will be made to use the odds history feature on proboxingodds.com to establish the odds on that day or a soon as possible afterwards.. Whilst we will make every effort to ensure that the odds are accurate at the time they are posted they will reflect the CREWs own final decision and cannot be overuled by reference to any external site or source, although they may legitimately be challenged if a poster has strong reason to believe they have not been calculated accurately. In any event any objections must be raised prior to the fight date and any decsion or ruling of the CREW on such a dispute will be final.
SCORING
After each fight, your score for that fight will be calculated as follows:
Correct Fighter = 20 pts
Correct Method = 10 pts
Correct Detail = 10 pts
Wrong Fighter = 0 pts
Draw = If you correctly pick a draw, you will win 150 pts. Everyone else will get 0.
The total of above results in your BASE SCORE. Your BASE SCORE for a fight will multiplied by all applicable multipliers / bonuses. If more than one multiplier is applicable to your score the multipliers will be added together before being applied, ie: a x4 underdog multiplier combined with a x3 optional multiplier will result in your score being multiplied by x7 not by x12.
Bonus multipliers will be made available for fights with a +300 (4/1) or wider favorite. The amount of the multiplier can be found by reference to the list below, although it is worth noting that in most cases we'll be making efforts to ensure that we include as few fights as possible with very heavy underdogs (x3 or x4):
In all cases we reserve the right to make exceptions to the above and will be monitoring the underdog multiplier during the year to check that play balance is not adversely effected.
PERFECT PICKS BONUS
As a new feature for 2024 folowing player feedback from the 2022 season we are implementing a new bonus to reward players for consistent accurate picking.Over the course of each 4 month season a tally will be kept of the number of 'perfect' picks (ie correct WINNER, METHOD, DETAIL) made by each player. At the end of the season players will receive a ranking based upon the number of perfect made over the course of the season.
The player or players with most perfect picks will receive a 50 point bonus
The player or players with second most perfect picks will receive a 40 point bonus
The player or players with third most perfect picks will receive a 30 point bonus
The player or players with forth most perfect picks will receive a 20 point bonus
The player or players with fifth most perfect picks will receive a 10 point bonus
In the event that multiple players have the same number of perfect picks over the course of the season they will all be ranked in equal positon and will all receive the full points bonus according to that ranking - ie if 3 players all end up with 5 prefect picks apeice ranking in 4th position then each of them would receive a 20 point bonus at the end of the 4 month season
Other Details
Score and rankings updates will be made as soon as possible after a fight with the aim of ensuring this occurs within 48 hours... those with experience of previous Pick Ems will know that this in fact rarely happens however...
Rankings will include number of remaining multipliers you have left.
If you attempt to use a multiplier that you do not have, we will use the highest available multiplier that is less than the one you tried to use. For example, if you say 2X without any 2Xs left, we will treat it as a 1X play. If you use a 3X without any 3Xs left, we will try to use a 2X. The x5 Multiplier is not subject to this rule since it's usage conditions make it inherently different to the x2 and x3 multipliers
Communications
Despite having tried various methods over the years communications remain problematic... mostly all general information regarding the Pick Em game as a whole or relating to 2022 in particular will be posted in this masterthread, information related to a particular weeks' fights on the other hand will be posted in the specific thread relating to that week. In the even that urgent communications need to be made - such as due to late changes in scheduling or nudges to players who may have made unclear picks or perhaps are ateempting to make illegal picks efforts will be made to contact you either singly or en masse via the call out notification tag which should alert you. Best bet is to just pop by the both the weekly threads and the masterthread every now and then to just check whether any relevent posts have been made by either the CREW or other players that might affect you. Ain't a perfect system but mostly it seems to work out.
Fight Selection - UPCOMING PICK EM threads
In an effort to continually ensure we are offering the fights most players want to see, and to give players the opportunoity to do research on fights or even provide advance absentee picks it is our intent to post a thread towards the nd of each month specifying which fights we intent to include in the game for the following month. The formula we used last year offered several fights that were definitely to be included but then also offered a pol for players to indicate which - if any - of a number of perhaps less high profile fights they would like to see in the game that month. On the occasions we actually manged to put up such thread I beleive they met with considerable player approval so the goal is to extend the same formula to every month (from March) this year.
Previous Pick Em Masterthreads
Just for posterity and the terminally curious the masterthreads for the last 7 years' PICK EMs are linked below. In them you can quite clearly track the evolution of the game and follow the often involved discussion of when and why we made all the choices we did. If nothing else it's just these threads represent literally hundreds of hours of work and I just can't bear just yet for it to disappear without a final farewell.
2023:
There was no Masterthread for 2023 but linked is the final PIck Em thread of the year including the final tally and 2023 Winners
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...-december-2023
2022:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...2-masterthread
2021:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...1-masterthread
2020:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=837530
2019:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=804370
2018:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=774031
2017:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=731902
List of Active Players
(placeholder)
Hmmm. Okay I think that about covers things - although I'm quite sure this page will go through interminable revisions throughout the year as it has done in past years.
Now if I could once again thank the BIGPOPPAPUMP and the mods for their patience over the last few years with my constant badgering for modifications and correction to thread titles and stuff, and ask if you could please sticky this new Masterthread
Finally a warm welcome back to all our 2023 players and anyone who's returning from previous years and of course the same goes to any new players who are joining us in 2024... hope you all have as much fun with this as I do, and best of luck to all of you throughout the year.
kind regards gentlemen
Koba
So... judging by the first Pick Em of 2024 most of you will be fully aware of what the Pick Em is all about and roughly how it works, we've seen a few new players joining in but most of you have seen it all before. However 2024 is bringing some really significant changes to the overall game structure even though weekly play is going to be much the same as in previous years so you may find it worth reading through my mass of waffle just to familiarise yourselves with the new format even if you are a veteran player from previous years.
So what is the PICK EM? In it's essence it's a straightforward prediction league. A year long competition where every week or two we put our knowledge to the test by predicting the outcomes of one or more boxing matches, and score points based upon the accuracy of our predictions. We accumulate the points and over time we come to see which of us are best able to reliably predict fights and those people go on to achieve eternal glory and bragging rights in the NSB PICK EM Hall of Fame (under construction)... oh... and possibly win a few $100 too...
The major change we've brought in after some discussion and proposals going back the last few years is to split the single year long competition which we've had since 2017 into 3 seasons of 4 months each. Each of the 3 seasons (running Jan 1st to April 30th, May 1st to Aug 31st and Sept 1st to Dec 31st) will be scored seperately and each will have it's own prize awards for the top scoring players of that season. In addition at the end of the year each players scores across all three seasons will be totalled and the player with the highest aggregate score will be declared NSB 2024 PICK EM CHAMPION and will receive an additonal prize of $300.
The aim of this change was mainly to reduce the amount of player attritIon over the course of the year, since it became apparent that once players fell significantly behind the leading pack on the scoreboards it was effectively impossible to claw there way back into the leadership postions after the first 6 months or so. In fact nder the old format even missing more than a handful of fights through illness or holidays or just the general crap life throws our way was generally enough to stop a player being in contention for one of the top slots. Whilst I think that most of us play just for the enjoyment it is a pretty big demotivator when you know you ain't even in with a shot.
So there we are - hopefully the new change will help keep players motivated and enthused throughout the year, ideally even bring in more new players as the year goes on, since it's no longer impossible to win aprize when you join later in the year. Really looking forward to see how it goes!
The NSB Pick Em's been running since 2017 when legendary 2017 POTY BrometheusBob decided to purloin the concept from a rival website - for which we will all be eternally thankful (cheers Bob
), but in early 2018 was taken over by a loose team of enthusiastic players - the self described PICK EM CREW - dedicated to keeping it running after real life compelled Bob to pay some attention to it. At this point it moved away from the original polled concept to the more labout intensive post-a-pick method that's still used today in order to keep the number of casual players to a managable number.After numerous changes over the last 6 years the 2024 CREW is gonna remain the same as the final 2023 CREW, namely Citizen Koba (that'd be yours truly) from the UK andNC Uppercut from where it says on the tin, both veteran CREW who have been joined over the last couple of years by dedicated players and boxing enthusiasts Tatabanya SteveM and MikeyG (who started taking it upon himself to post up the video footage you'll find near the start of each Pick Em thread). Gotta say a huge thanks to all 4 you cos without you I wouldn't have been able to keep this thing going through last years difficulties.
You can ask any of us for help, advice or clarifications and mostly - asuming we're in a good mood - we'll be only too pleased to help you out. In additon, of course, we're always looking to improve the game so will always welcome positive suggestions and constructive criticism from you, the players. Right from it's inception in 2018 the ethos of the CREW has been to build a good community - with competion and banter of course, but mainly as a space where we can share our love of boxing, appreciate the fights, learn from one another and most of all, perhaps, have a bit of fun.
The game is open to all posters regardless of join date, post count or likes, there's no registration and ultimately no commitment, anyone can play as much or little as they wish and are free to join or drop out for any of the 3 seasons or even at any time during each of the seasons - although in general I'd expect most players to stick it out across all 3 seasons.
Details on how to make your picks are laid out below and will also be repeated in each Pick 'em thread throughout the year, but essentially follows the format of choosing Winner, method (KO or DEC) and detail ie how close a dec is or when a KO will happen.
In terms of fight selection after some discussion we've made a decison to lean more towards fights with closer odds over those with higher rankings for 2024. In the day to day this is unlikely to make a huge difference compared to previous years, it's more a case of when there is several fights to choose from that are all of similar merit and we need to choose between em we'll be more likely to pick closer odds fights even if the fighters involved may be a touch further down the rankings - as ever though we'll continuially seek player imput throughout the year to make sure the selection process accords with what a majority of players want to see included.
In general all title fights between fighters ranked in the top 10 per TBRB will be included plus any non-title fights of particular fan interest. Fights with guys in the top few places of the P4P rankings will also generally be included even when (as often happens) they are a prohibitive favourite. Should the WBSS introduce a new season during the course of 2024 we will make every effort to include the fights from that competition or indeed those from any event of similar ambition that should occur during the year.
In addition - as mentioned below - efforts will be made to give the players some say in which fights are chosen each month... generally through some type of polling or canvassing system, to try to ensure we're staying fairly close to the pace and game style that suits most of you.
So following that lengthy introduction it's down to business I guess. The following Ranking table will be kept up to date as best possible as the standard reference to the points and rankings of all the players in the 2022 Pick Em and should also be used to keep track of remaining multipliers and other relevent statistics. Inevitably there will be times when we (I) fall behind with the updating, for which I humbly beg your patience in advance:
NSB PICK EM 2024 SEASON START AND END DATES
SEASON 1: Jan 1st 2024 - April 30th 2024
SEASON 2: May 1st 2024 - August 31st 2024
SEASON 3: September 1st 2024 - December 31st 2024
NSB PICK EM 2024 SEASON 1 CURRENT RANKINGS
PLACEHOLDER
Note on Rankings: PICK EM players with the same number of overall points will now be ordered firstly by % of correct picks and then by the number of perfect picks they have achieved. In the event that any of the three highrest ranked players at the end of the year have the same number of overall points the same rule will apply and prizes awarded accordingly. In the event that any of the top ranked players cannot be seperated by % or Perfect picks the player with the fewest number of total picks shall break the tie. Further differentiation can be obtained by (in order) remaining x5, remaining x3, remaining x2 should it prove necessary...
2024 COMPLETED PICK EMS
| DATE | FIGHT | RESULT | PICK EM THREAD |
| 2024.1.13 | BETERBIEV VS SMITH | BETERBIEV KO MID | https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/boxing-forums/non-stop-boxing/32130655-nsb-pick-em-2024-round-1-pick-em-1-2-saturday-13th-january |
2024 Pick Em Prizes:
(in case eternal bragging rights just ain't enough for you)
FOR EACH 4 MONTH SEASON
Winner: $200 payable by paypal
1st Runner Up: $100 payable by paypal
2nd Runner Up: $50 payable by paypal
FOR THE 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP OVERALL WINNER
$300
All prizes provided courtesy of Boxing Scene.
NB: Receiving a prize at any point in the year does not disqualify a player from winning again. In theory aplayer who scored the most points in each of the three season (and thus the highest overall aggregate) could walk away with $900 over the course of the year.
NSB PICK EM REIGNING CHAMPION (2023 WINNER)
ruedboy
Previous winners:
2022 - MikeyG
2021 - Keithj
2020 - Asgarth
2019 - Baltimore
2018 - otrocubiche
2017 - RockyB
GROUND RULES:
- Prior to each fight, a new thread will be made for the purpose of allowing people to record their predictions. Each thread will include a minimum of one fight but may include several. where more than one fight is included every effort will be made to sequence the games firstly by universal time zone (UTC) then by running order, ending with the main event in that time zone.
- Predictions must be made prior to the start of the fight. the opening bell of the bout shall be the cut-off point for allowable picks or modifications to picks. Whilst every effort will be made to notify the players in the thread at the moment of the cut off, if this is not possible other resources will be used to establish this moment as accurately as possible in the event of any dispute.
- You do not need to make a prediction for every fight to stay in the game, but obviously you will receive no points if you do not pick.
TERMINOLOGY
RESULT METHOD
KO = Will cover all type of stoppage wins - TKO, KO, DQ
DECISION = Will cover all type of decision wins - UD, MD, SD, TD
DRAW = If you believe the fighters are so evenly matched that a DRAW outcome is a reasonable possibility you may forego picking a winner and instead pick DRAW.
RESULT DETAIL
If you picked KO, either EARLY (1-4), MID (5-8) or LATE 9-12. (Or 1-3, 4-6, 7-10 for a 10 rounder).
If you picked DEC, either 'CLOSE', 'CLEAR' or 'WIDE'.
CLOSE = Total score difference is 9 points or fewer
eg. 116-113 on all three cards or closer. 115 - 113, 117 - 111, 114 - 114
CLEAR = Total score difference between 10 and 18 points.
eg. 117 - 111, 116 - 112, 116 - 112
WIDE = Total score difference of 19 points or greater
eg. Wider than 117-111 on all three cards
If the fight is a 10 round fight or ends in a technical decision, the cutoff lines of 9 pts and 18 points are scaled down to the number of rounds fought so that CLOSE is ≤0.75R and WIDE is >1.5R - rounded to the nearest whole - where R is the number of rounds fought
so WIDE for a 10 round fight will be wider than 15 points (eg 97-93, 98-92, 98-92) and CLOSE will be a total split of 8 points or fewer
In the event of a fight being Cancelled, No Decisions, No Contests or Technical Draws under 4 rounds (under those jurisdictions which use such rulings) the Pick Em will be declared null. Multipliers will not have been considered used and the fight will not be counted with regards to the number of picks made or accuracy percentage stistics although for the purposes of assigning numbers to the Pick Ems the bout will still be included.
MULTIPLIERS
Every player will have the option to use optional multipliers throughout the game when they feel especially confident of their prediction. It can also allow players who joined late an opportunity to get in the game by scoring a big pick.
2X = Get twice as many points for this prediction. You will receive three of these at the start of each 4 month season
3X = Get triple the points for this prediction. You will receive two of these at the start of each 4 month season
5x = Get five times the regular score for this prediction. You will receive one of these at the start of each 4 month season
Multipliers can only be played on fighters whose aggreagate odds as indicated on the weekly Pick Em thread are +100 or greater - ie on the Bookies' underdog. On the rare occasions neither fighter has odds of +100 or greater no multiplier may be played on that fight.
At the beginning of each 4 month season each active player will receive multpliers as specified above. At the end of each 4 month season any unused multipliers will be declared void and discarded. There is no carry overs.
ODDS
Every effort will be made to obtain accurate odds for each fight in the PICK EM based on an average of odds from a number of different bookmakers on the comparison site proboxingodds.com. The time point will be the point at which the thread is first posted unless no odds are available at that time in which case every effort will be made to use the odds history feature on proboxingodds.com to establish the odds on that day or a soon as possible afterwards.. Whilst we will make every effort to ensure that the odds are accurate at the time they are posted they will reflect the CREWs own final decision and cannot be overuled by reference to any external site or source, although they may legitimately be challenged if a poster has strong reason to believe they have not been calculated accurately. In any event any objections must be raised prior to the fight date and any decsion or ruling of the CREW on such a dispute will be final.
SCORING
After each fight, your score for that fight will be calculated as follows:
Correct Fighter = 20 pts
Correct Method = 10 pts
Correct Detail = 10 pts
Wrong Fighter = 0 pts
Draw = If you correctly pick a draw, you will win 150 pts. Everyone else will get 0.
The total of above results in your BASE SCORE. Your BASE SCORE for a fight will multiplied by all applicable multipliers / bonuses. If more than one multiplier is applicable to your score the multipliers will be added together before being applied, ie: a x4 underdog multiplier combined with a x3 optional multiplier will result in your score being multiplied by x7 not by x12.
Bonus multipliers will be made available for fights with a +300 (4/1) or wider favorite. The amount of the multiplier can be found by reference to the list below, although it is worth noting that in most cases we'll be making efforts to ensure that we include as few fights as possible with very heavy underdogs (x3 or x4):
| Odds | Multiplier |
| <300 | x1 |
| 300 - 599 | x2 |
| 600 - 999 | x3 |
| 1000+ | x4 |
In all cases we reserve the right to make exceptions to the above and will be monitoring the underdog multiplier during the year to check that play balance is not adversely effected.
PERFECT PICKS BONUS
As a new feature for 2024 folowing player feedback from the 2022 season we are implementing a new bonus to reward players for consistent accurate picking.Over the course of each 4 month season a tally will be kept of the number of 'perfect' picks (ie correct WINNER, METHOD, DETAIL) made by each player. At the end of the season players will receive a ranking based upon the number of perfect made over the course of the season.
The player or players with most perfect picks will receive a 50 point bonus
The player or players with second most perfect picks will receive a 40 point bonus
The player or players with third most perfect picks will receive a 30 point bonus
The player or players with forth most perfect picks will receive a 20 point bonus
The player or players with fifth most perfect picks will receive a 10 point bonus
In the event that multiple players have the same number of perfect picks over the course of the season they will all be ranked in equal positon and will all receive the full points bonus according to that ranking - ie if 3 players all end up with 5 prefect picks apeice ranking in 4th position then each of them would receive a 20 point bonus at the end of the 4 month season
Other Details
Score and rankings updates will be made as soon as possible after a fight with the aim of ensuring this occurs within 48 hours... those with experience of previous Pick Ems will know that this in fact rarely happens however...
Rankings will include number of remaining multipliers you have left.
If you attempt to use a multiplier that you do not have, we will use the highest available multiplier that is less than the one you tried to use. For example, if you say 2X without any 2Xs left, we will treat it as a 1X play. If you use a 3X without any 3Xs left, we will try to use a 2X. The x5 Multiplier is not subject to this rule since it's usage conditions make it inherently different to the x2 and x3 multipliers
Communications
Despite having tried various methods over the years communications remain problematic... mostly all general information regarding the Pick Em game as a whole or relating to 2022 in particular will be posted in this masterthread, information related to a particular weeks' fights on the other hand will be posted in the specific thread relating to that week. In the even that urgent communications need to be made - such as due to late changes in scheduling or nudges to players who may have made unclear picks or perhaps are ateempting to make illegal picks efforts will be made to contact you either singly or en masse via the call out notification tag which should alert you. Best bet is to just pop by the both the weekly threads and the masterthread every now and then to just check whether any relevent posts have been made by either the CREW or other players that might affect you. Ain't a perfect system but mostly it seems to work out.
Fight Selection - UPCOMING PICK EM threads
In an effort to continually ensure we are offering the fights most players want to see, and to give players the opportunoity to do research on fights or even provide advance absentee picks it is our intent to post a thread towards the nd of each month specifying which fights we intent to include in the game for the following month. The formula we used last year offered several fights that were definitely to be included but then also offered a pol for players to indicate which - if any - of a number of perhaps less high profile fights they would like to see in the game that month. On the occasions we actually manged to put up such thread I beleive they met with considerable player approval so the goal is to extend the same formula to every month (from March) this year.
Previous Pick Em Masterthreads
Just for posterity and the terminally curious the masterthreads for the last 7 years' PICK EMs are linked below. In them you can quite clearly track the evolution of the game and follow the often involved discussion of when and why we made all the choices we did. If nothing else it's just these threads represent literally hundreds of hours of work and I just can't bear just yet for it to disappear without a final farewell.
2023:
There was no Masterthread for 2023 but linked is the final PIck Em thread of the year including the final tally and 2023 Winners
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...-december-2023
2022:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...2-masterthread
2021:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/b...1-masterthread
2020:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=837530
2019:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=804370
2018:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=774031
2017:
https://www.boxingscene.com/forums/s...d.php?t=731902
List of Active Players
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Hmmm. Okay I think that about covers things - although I'm quite sure this page will go through interminable revisions throughout the year as it has done in past years.
Now if I could once again thank the BIGPOPPAPUMP and the mods for their patience over the last few years with my constant badgering for modifications and correction to thread titles and stuff, and ask if you could please sticky this new Masterthread
Finally a warm welcome back to all our 2023 players and anyone who's returning from previous years and of course the same goes to any new players who are joining us in 2024... hope you all have as much fun with this as I do, and best of luck to all of you throughout the year.
kind regards gentlemen
Koba
_Jordan_
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