NSB PICK EM 2019 DISCUSSION THREAD
Okay gentlemen, I put this damn thing off just about as long as I could, so it's probably a little overdue.. but hey, better late than never.
Firstly I just want to wish everyone a happy New Year and here's hoping we get another bunch of great fights in 2019... the PICK EM CREW spent a lot of hours keeping this shit going last year, but speaking for myself at least I found the effort well worth it and hope all the players had as much fun as I did.
For anyone who didn't know the 2018 winner was otrocubiche with 2017 winner RockyB a close runner up. Congratualtions to you both gentlemen.
Despite a bit of a snafu in my scoring of the last fight of the year there wasn't any significant changes as a result, so I decided to get the ball rolling for 2019 before going back to make the corrections for completions sake.
OK... Before we get this thing going for 2019 there were a few ideas I wanted to run past any players and perspective players based on your experiences of the last two years' games. Whilst none of these will change the essence of the game they could change (is some cases quite significantly) the way fights are scored, and other details, hopefully for the better. Those of you who had to read through some of my long winded posts in the past will know I can be a bit wordy at times, but please try to bear with me, cos I genuinely want to get as much input as possible so I can try to give you the game you all want.
Firstly I've mentioned a few times over the year the idea of re-balancing the scoring system to put more emphasis on the method and detail of victory and less on the result itself - this would hopefully help differentiate the players more and reward deeper knowledge, especially given that in the vast majority of cases the favourite wins anyway.
Ideas range from simply keeping the current 20/5/5 scoring system (result/method/detail), keeping the same system but rewarding perfect picks with a bonus 10pts (effectively making it 20/5/15), changing it to 20/10/10, 10/10/10 or even reducing the significance of the W greatly to 10/20/20.
A second idea revolves around finding room for an extra DEC pick -currently the DEC results are CLOSE (<12 pts) and WIDE (12+ pts) with technically a DRAW counting as a separate type of pick. My proposal is to have a SPLIT (or some similar name) result to indicate a very close fight (though it doesn't necessarily have to be a split decision) with a winning margin of <6 pts, a CLEAR (or somesuch) pick of < 18 pts and a WIDE or DOMINANT result of 18+ points separating the fighters. Not only does this broaden the range of possibilities, again differentiating between the players more it also opens up the possibility of removing the somewhat random 'DRAW' pick we currently have and incorporating DRAW results into the SPLIT pick for either fighter. ie whichever winner you pick for a SPLIT win, a draw will also grant you the points (or possibly just the points for predicting a DEC result).
A third issue is one that may suit some more than others and regards the multiplier for underdog picks. I know that some of the players dislike this in principle anyway, thinking it should always just be about picking the guy most likely to win, but others may like the gamesmanship and risk weighing that getting a bonus for picking the underdog brings to the game. Please tell me if you'd either like to see the 'Dog multiplier removed altogether or changed in some way. Currently the multiplier is calculated by taking the average bookies odds on a win and dividing it by 4 if it is 5/1 or greater. A suggested increase might be odds divided by 3 on odds of 4/1 or greater or even more (though I feel that going too far like say odds/2 might start to unbalance the game in really wide fights)
Finally I would like any input on which fights players would like to see and how many. Did we get the balance about right last year? Were there too many fights? Too few? Would you have preferred lower ranked fights if it meant having a less clear and obvious favourite? Any suggestions and recommendations will help us to decide what fights to include over the course of the year.
One last idea I'm toying with is setting up a social group for the players, with the hope of being able to more easily send out reminders and canvass opinion, but I ain't got a clue how the damn things work or if it's even a workable proposition so I'd welcome any help or advice from someone with the relevant knowledge. Dunno how successful it'd be but I reckon it could be a big help especially when we got fights on Fridays or Sundays and in different time zones.
Finally (a hopefully final finally) an appeal for help... already making up the new PICK EM CREW for 2019 we got (unless there are any objections) NC Uppercut, and 2018 winner otrocubiche alongside myself Koba-Grozny, but I'd ideally like to add one or two more CREW guys - firstly because I want to make this thing as robust as possible cos I don't want it going down if one or even two of us should have to drop out for whatever reason, but also cos I want the PICK EM CREWs decision making to reflect a broad range of opinions... ideally this would mean getting one or two posters from countries that ain't either the UK or US (where the 3 current CREW hail from), but honestly it ain't that important - any extra hands on deck would be greatly appreciated.
OK. Well, if any of you actually stayed with me through all that, thanks for your patience and please don't hesitate to make your feelings known.
Good luck with your picks for 2019.
MULTIPLE CHOICE POLL ADDED
Regards
Koba
Sticky me please -MEGA-, BostonGuy, TBear, jaded
Okay gentlemen, I put this damn thing off just about as long as I could, so it's probably a little overdue.. but hey, better late than never.
Firstly I just want to wish everyone a happy New Year and here's hoping we get another bunch of great fights in 2019... the PICK EM CREW spent a lot of hours keeping this shit going last year, but speaking for myself at least I found the effort well worth it and hope all the players had as much fun as I did.
For anyone who didn't know the 2018 winner was otrocubiche with 2017 winner RockyB a close runner up. Congratualtions to you both gentlemen.
Despite a bit of a snafu in my scoring of the last fight of the year there wasn't any significant changes as a result, so I decided to get the ball rolling for 2019 before going back to make the corrections for completions sake.
OK... Before we get this thing going for 2019 there were a few ideas I wanted to run past any players and perspective players based on your experiences of the last two years' games. Whilst none of these will change the essence of the game they could change (is some cases quite significantly) the way fights are scored, and other details, hopefully for the better. Those of you who had to read through some of my long winded posts in the past will know I can be a bit wordy at times, but please try to bear with me, cos I genuinely want to get as much input as possible so I can try to give you the game you all want.
Firstly I've mentioned a few times over the year the idea of re-balancing the scoring system to put more emphasis on the method and detail of victory and less on the result itself - this would hopefully help differentiate the players more and reward deeper knowledge, especially given that in the vast majority of cases the favourite wins anyway.
Ideas range from simply keeping the current 20/5/5 scoring system (result/method/detail), keeping the same system but rewarding perfect picks with a bonus 10pts (effectively making it 20/5/15), changing it to 20/10/10, 10/10/10 or even reducing the significance of the W greatly to 10/20/20.
A second idea revolves around finding room for an extra DEC pick -currently the DEC results are CLOSE (<12 pts) and WIDE (12+ pts) with technically a DRAW counting as a separate type of pick. My proposal is to have a SPLIT (or some similar name) result to indicate a very close fight (though it doesn't necessarily have to be a split decision) with a winning margin of <6 pts, a CLEAR (or somesuch) pick of < 18 pts and a WIDE or DOMINANT result of 18+ points separating the fighters. Not only does this broaden the range of possibilities, again differentiating between the players more it also opens up the possibility of removing the somewhat random 'DRAW' pick we currently have and incorporating DRAW results into the SPLIT pick for either fighter. ie whichever winner you pick for a SPLIT win, a draw will also grant you the points (or possibly just the points for predicting a DEC result).
A third issue is one that may suit some more than others and regards the multiplier for underdog picks. I know that some of the players dislike this in principle anyway, thinking it should always just be about picking the guy most likely to win, but others may like the gamesmanship and risk weighing that getting a bonus for picking the underdog brings to the game. Please tell me if you'd either like to see the 'Dog multiplier removed altogether or changed in some way. Currently the multiplier is calculated by taking the average bookies odds on a win and dividing it by 4 if it is 5/1 or greater. A suggested increase might be odds divided by 3 on odds of 4/1 or greater or even more (though I feel that going too far like say odds/2 might start to unbalance the game in really wide fights)
Finally I would like any input on which fights players would like to see and how many. Did we get the balance about right last year? Were there too many fights? Too few? Would you have preferred lower ranked fights if it meant having a less clear and obvious favourite? Any suggestions and recommendations will help us to decide what fights to include over the course of the year.
One last idea I'm toying with is setting up a social group for the players, with the hope of being able to more easily send out reminders and canvass opinion, but I ain't got a clue how the damn things work or if it's even a workable proposition so I'd welcome any help or advice from someone with the relevant knowledge. Dunno how successful it'd be but I reckon it could be a big help especially when we got fights on Fridays or Sundays and in different time zones.
Finally (a hopefully final finally) an appeal for help... already making up the new PICK EM CREW for 2019 we got (unless there are any objections) NC Uppercut, and 2018 winner otrocubiche alongside myself Koba-Grozny, but I'd ideally like to add one or two more CREW guys - firstly because I want to make this thing as robust as possible cos I don't want it going down if one or even two of us should have to drop out for whatever reason, but also cos I want the PICK EM CREWs decision making to reflect a broad range of opinions... ideally this would mean getting one or two posters from countries that ain't either the UK or US (where the 3 current CREW hail from), but honestly it ain't that important - any extra hands on deck would be greatly appreciated.
OK. Well, if any of you actually stayed with me through all that, thanks for your patience and please don't hesitate to make your feelings known.
Good luck with your picks for 2019.
MULTIPLE CHOICE POLL ADDED
Regards
Koba
Sticky me please -MEGA-, BostonGuy, TBear, jaded
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