Nsb pick em 2019 discussion thread

[PICK EM CREW]

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

[PICK EM CREW]

Oooops. Damn. Just voted on the poll as PICK EM CREW rather than my regular account... these votes are not supposed to represent the views of the PICK EM CREW as a whole but just of myself, Koba-Grozny.

Pardon me, gents.

[Eff Pandas]

Respect. Good ideas.

I vote to make the decision categories Close, Clear & Wide. Maybe I'm ******ed, but wide & dominant always sound like basically the same thing to me. And in that case you could go with Close, Clear & Dominant too I guess, but the first version flows better I feel like.

Don't dislike the idea of social club here. Idk how that all works either, but it would streamline the whole game better & be a good one stop shop destination to maybe make the process easier for all. I know many of us have missed out on fights cuz we just didn't happen to bump into the thread in time.

As for the fights I think maybe any top 15 or maybe top 20 caliber fight, if they aren't too low ranked in the top 20, should be Pick Em fights. Maybe only the top 10 for lil guy divisions since they aren't as deep & generally fans aren't as knowledgeable about those divisions very deep in the rankings.

As for the dog angle I've stated before I think the betting multiple should be used on the bets.

So if someone was a 1.2 favorite and the person picked the winner right instead of 20pts he'd get 24 (20×1.2). And if a 3.0 dog won & someone picked that correctly they get 60pts (20×3).

[koolkc107]

If it aint broke, don't go trying to fix it.

Ask yourself this: since this game has been here, have the right guys won?

If so, the system is working efficiently enough. I am good with keeping 20/5/5.

I think picking the right fighter should still be the thing that gets the most points.

The other things can be tweaked a bit but not much.

If you are going to reward perfect picks with an additional bonus, that's fine. But again, the right pick should be the most points. An additional 5 or 10 points is fine.

I think the amount of multipliers should be increased slightly.

I think draws should count exactly the way they have been counting because predicting a close decision is still not the same as predicting an even fight.

Here's a wrinkle I thought of that might spice things up a bit. When a guy runs out of multipliers, ONCE AND ONLY ONCE he (or she) should be able to wager some of the points they have accumulated, up to say 150 or 200 points. They must have a perfect pick to win the points. If so, they get what they wagered on top of what would be added. If they lose, the points get deducted.

Yeah, it's kind of a goofy idea, but **** would still be very interesting at the end of the year.

Again, I would be fine with keeping things as they are.

It aint perfect, but it has worked.

[Citizen Koba]

Respect. Good ideas.

I vote to make the decision categories Close, Clear & Wide. Maybe I'm ******ed, but wide & dominant always sound like basically the same thing to me. And in that case you could go with Close, Clear & Dominant too I guess, but the first version flows better I feel like.

Don't dislike the idea of social club here. Idk how that all works either, but it would streamline the whole game better & be a good one stop shop destination to maybe make the process easier for all. I know many of us have missed out on fights cuz we just didn't happen to bump into the thread in time.

As for the fights I think maybe any top 15 or maybe top 20 caliber fight, if they aren't too low ranked in the top 20, should be Pick Em fights. Maybe only the top 10 for lil guy divisions since they aren't as deep & generally fans aren't as knowledgeable about those divisions very deep in the rankings.

As for the dog angle I've stated before I think the betting multiple should be used on the bets.

So if someone was a 1.2 favorite and the person picked the winner right instead of 20pts he'd get 24 (20×1.2). And if a 3.0 dog won & someone picked that correctly they get 60pts (20×3).

I like the idea in principle though for practical purposes I'd want to streamline it by stepping the mult at maybe .5 intervals, and I'd probably think about capping it too, cos some of these fights have crazy wide odds like 10/1 or more... I'm not sure these kinda fights really make for the best pick 'ems, but since they also often involve some of the most popular fighters in the sport it's kinda hard to skip 'em too. I'd probably think about a max x5 multiplier cap I'd guess... perhaps even x4

[koolkc107]

I like the idea in principle though for practical purposes I'd want to streamline it by stepping the mult at maybe .5 intervals, and I'd probably think about capping it too, cos some of these fights have crazy wide odds like 10/1 or more... I'm not sure these kinda fights really make for the best pick 'ems, but since they also often involve some of the most popular fighters in the sport it's kinda hard to skip 'em too. I'd probably think about a max x5 multiplier cap I'd guess... perhaps even x4

In a perfect world, this would be awesome.

My question is, what kind of load would it put on the guys doing the actual tabulations?

[Citizen Koba]

In a perfect world, this would be awesome.

My question is, what kind of load would it put on the guys doing the actual tabulations?

Yeah - that is why I'd be looking at streamlining it to at least .5 intervals. Even that would involve a fair chunk of extra work... The 'Dog multiplier only came into play about twice this year and only actually affected about 4 or 5 players (I'm thinking you might have been one of em now I think about it) so it wasn't too much of a problem, but this would affect many more fights and many more players. I'd have to give serious thought as to how to make it work.

My other issue is that it would start to affect play balance quite significantly, which ain't necessarily a problem, but I'd want a clear mandate from a majority of players to go ahead with it.

[koolkc107]

Yeah - that is why I'd be looking at streamlining it to at least .5 intervals. Even that would involve a fair chunk of extra work... The 'Dog multiplier only came into play about twice this year and only actually affected about 4 or 5 players (I'm thinking you might have been one of em now I think about it) so it wasn't too much of a problem, but this would affect many more fights and many more players. I'd have to give serious thought as to how to make it work.

My other issue is that it would start to affect play balance quite significantly, which ain't necessarily a problem, but I'd want a clear mandate from a majority of players to go ahead with it.

That's why as much as I am for the idea itself, I'd be a no vote.

Unless it was made easy for the guys doing the legwork, I would be against it.

[BLASTER1]

Maybe in the one sided mis-matches the multiplier for the underdog gets taken of the winners points if the favourite wins.
Eg. If I win with the favourite I get minus the 1.5x or whatever it was paying for the underdog.
Hopefully that makes sense.

[boliodogs]

I am just a boxing fan who likes to watch good fighters and good fights. I don't understand the purpose the pick em or what it is good for or what it will accomplish. Good luck with it. Others seem to enjoy it.