KNOCKOUT STAGES ARE UPON US
a rules refresher
- EVERYONE HAS A FRESH JOKER TO PLAY
- UNPLAYED JOKERS ARE AUTOPLAYED ON THE WORLD CUP FINAL
- YOUR PREDO SHOULD INCLUDE EXTRA TIME (IF NEEDED) AND DISREGARD PENALTIES. A GAME THAT FINISHES 2-2 (4-3 PENS) IS A *DRAWN GAME*
- PREDO UP!
The scores are below, but please enjoy this previously unpublished Predo Profile:
For the month leading up to World Cup Predos, we will profile the runners and riders in a series of intimate interviews. In this episode we speak to Bryan off Twitter, whose military background may worry a few of our pacifist and workshy contestants...
PREDO: Predo here. Bryan, you live in Canada and qualified through the wildcard system. What could you possibly know about the art of the predo?
BRYAN: I grew up in the UK until 2005, amassing an incredible gambling record of 1-0, netting a profit of £80 by betting on Brighton to beat Plymouth and score two goals in 2004. I hope to continue my hot streak of football pickery this summer.
PREDO: Jude, winner of Europredo, has been caught on tape saying, and I quote: "these qualifiers, they're shit, they don't deserve to be in the same league as me." How do you respond to that?
BRYAN: My response, and you can relay this to him of course, is "Hey Jude, don't be afraid!"
PREDO: He will be fully appraised. Do you have a particular strategy that you'll be bringing to World Cup Predo?
BRYAN: My strategy will likely be based around the 0-0 draw, which may not be sound as it's based on decades of waking up early to watch a game I'm excited for, only to be asleep again before half time.
PREDO: Finally, Bryan, let's have an early predo about how you're going to do in this tournament.
BRYAN: I expect to surge out into an early lead, falter, and ultimately end up second from bottom.
A prescient view!
Day 15, the final day of group games, saw a flurry of OCHOS - for Jude, Hazel, Bryan, Liam. The final jokers were played, though only Manager managed to make any ground up with theirs.
I managed to speak to fellow panellist Day in her magesterium of Predo Player. She captured the malaise of the WC Predo admin who plays the game for love despite the hardship of juggling a 34 player predo pool better than I ever could:
And so, the scores, at the 75% mark of the competition are as follows:
The overall average has depleted slightly, but the last round of ties yielded some unlikely results that even the most ardent predist could not foresee.
However, with jokers back in play, and this very tournament showing that a 30 point gap can be overcome with intelligent play, you would have to think that players all the way down to Simpo are in with a shout. The rest, sadly, will have to duke it out for minor places - and to avoid relegation to the Google+ League.
No comments:
Post a Comment