It's time to start thinking about who you expect to win the AO ... and remembering the 'standard' pick 'em names of all our favourite players:
Fed Riff-Raff Nole the Undertaker Pics Duckboy Gonzo Dammit Numpty Rock On Muzza Bunny (new for this year, his German nick is Hasi, which is usually translated as this, even though Hase means hare ...) JR (new for this year - the only top 16 player without a nickname, it's either this - his first names are James Riley - or Blakey from On the Buses ...) Berdbrain Slick Willy Baggy ... or even someone outside the top 16!
If the main draw is on Friday morning Aus time, as rumoured, then pick 'em entries will open before the end of Friday - maybe even on Friday morning if I stay awake long enough to get the entry form completed and uploaded on Friday night, but I'm not promising that. I think qualifying is due to finish on Saturday - if so, the entry form with qualifiers placed will be available by Saturday evening UK time, with entries closing late on Sunday UK time.
The scoring is probably going to change for this year - for full details, see http://andymurray.com/community/discussion/2932, feel free to comment here if you want to comment and you're not registered there.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Me too. I did seem to be too highly placed on several occasions looking at the number of winners I picked overall so am happy with a system that rewards those who are more consistently right than the ones who leap up the table with final round points.
The deadline is 23.30 GMT on Sunday, which is 18.30 US EST, 00.30 Monday CET, etc - half an hour before play is due to start. N.B. Because you get much longer to enter for slams than for AMS pick 'ems, entries received after play starts will not be accepted (even with penalties) for slams.
You can enter now and pick qualifiers 'blind', but if you want to wait until qualifiers have been placed in the draw, you would be better off entering after about 12.00 GMT on Saturday - I will post here again once they have been added to the entry form.
A few changes for 2008:
- the scoring system will be 1 for a R1 win, 2 for a R2 win, 3 for a R3 win, ... , 7 for a win in the Final, instead of 1, 2, 4, ... , 64 as last year
- as a consequence of this, the bonus points for the overall rankings for each 0.1% above the average for a tournament will double compared with last year - this is to stop pick 'em winners getting less ranking points on average than pick 'em winners last year
- if you are not playing for one of the more popular teams, you can pick an alternate team from among those that always get plenty of entries which you will be switched to (for this tournament only) if your team ends up below the minimum size (5 is the minimum team size for a slam), though you can also elect to play as an individual only if that happens
Please be careful when entering to look at the 'Pre-submission checks' at the bottom of the entry form (and deal with any errors reported there) before submitting your entry ... and to print your entry if possible before you send it.
Good luck everybody - it looks like the AO is going to be another tough pick 'em!
-- Edited by steven at 03:34, 2008-01-11
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Those of you in Europe (possibly those elsewhere too) have far more waking hours between qualifiers being placed in the draw and the entry deadline (23.30 GMT on Sunday) than ever before, so let's have a record number of entries, please!
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Done mine. I had a bit of a bizarre prediction about Federer's fate in the Aussie Open a few months ago and, since he's been drawn in teh same quarter as Guccione, I have to stick with it.
This table shows the entrants from each board 24 hrs before the deadline. The number in (..) is the final total no. of entrants that board had for the USO pick 'em.
AO = -%- Cd Team ( USO )
39 = 28% AM AndyMurray.com ( 43 ) 20 = 15% BT BritishTennis.net ( 20 ) 16 = 12% AR AndyRoddick.com ( 26 ) 10 = 7% RF RogerFederer.com ( 11 ) 8 = 6% CC CentreCourtHavoc ( new ) 8 = 6% MT MensTennisForums ( 32 ) 6 = 4% IN Individuals (no team) ( 30 ) 7 = 5% GR Rusedski.co.uk ( 10 ) 7 = 5% RG RichardGasquet.net ( new ) 5 = 4% TY Tennis4you.com ( 14 ) ---- below: have not reached the min. team size yet ---- 3 = 2% VB VamosBrigade.com ( new ) 2 = 1% TN Tennisopolis.com ( new ) 2 = 1% MK MarkKnowlesTennis ( new ) 2 = 1% SG Stevegtennis.com ( 12 ) 1 = 1% BB BBC boards ( 7 ) 1 = 1% BZ BritishTennisZone ( 6 )
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Also, there's going to be an additional KO team competition as well as the usual whole tournament team and individual leagues this time - see http://www.xlw93.dial.pipex.com/2008aoko.htm - there's an explanation at the bottom of that page ... and it'll probably make a bit more sense with actual teams and results in it!
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
I recieved a message from my site moderator stating that only 2 people from my site have registered for the inter-board competition. I did register but somehow he's saying my name hasn't shown up under our team name. My team name is tennisopolis we are new to the competition. The name I used to sign up is ThePoet. Could you tell me if I'm registered under my team name please?
You're not on my list, but that only goes up to about 23.30 GMT last night, so if you have entered in the last 7.5 hours, Bethan probably has got your entry but it won't have gone on the list yet.
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GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Well, it was around noon Us pacific time zone. I recieved the message that my entry was successful. So hopefully you're right and Bethan has my name listed. I will check back tomorrow.
My apologies. For some reason beyond comprehension 4 Tennisopolis entries had been filtered by my email account into junk without me realising. I have now got your entry and 3 others from Tennisopolis, bringing your team number up to 6. Thanks for letting us know there was an issue, it reminded me to check.
Good luck, Bethan x
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