ONE WEEK TO GO!

Greetings Predo fans! That's fans of the art of prediction, and not fans of me. Though if you're here just for me, then hello to you too!

World Cup Predo ran a practice round on June 7th to test out some of the new rules, but mainly to act as a form guide ahead of the tournament. With new competitors coming from leagues all around the globe, it turned out to be an interesting insight into the general parity of predoers around the world despite the radically different styles!

PRACTICE ROUND RESULTS

The two games predicted were:

• England 2 - 0 Costa Rica (scorers: Rashford, Welbeck)
• Portugal 3 - 0 Algeria (scorers: Guedes x 2, Fernandes)

24 competitors entered the trial event - a few notable absences, but perhaps they were doing rigorous predo calisthenics ahead of tournament play - and the results were as follows.

1st Tom H (12pts)
2nd Brendan (11pts)
3rd ML (10pts)
= Ando
= Sam
= Olly
= Rosie
= Neil PLS
9th Jude (9pts)
10th Benno (8pts)
= Alexx
= Day
= Cotty
= Simpo
= Bryan
= Raven
17th Randy (7pts)
18th Predo (6pts)
19th Mark (5pts)
= Andrew
21st Mystery Predictor (4pts)
= Neil Oted
23rd DICE MAN (3pts)
24th Manager (2pts)

Brendan can perhaps be a little aggrieved at not having won. Both he & Tom H scored the OCHO maximum on the first fixture, though Tom H's prediction was saved by the dice after Harry Kane did not play. Brendan's was a pure OCHO, and only his errant prediction in the second fixture saw him fall into second place.

On the whole it was a solid round of predoing from the majority, albeit on what must be said to have been reasonably easy results to predict (if not the actual scorelines).

This was as much a trial run for the dice as it was for contestants. There have been a couple of queries from competitors, but on the whole the Predo Panel feel confident that it is a solid addition to tournament play. 

It must be said, however, they hope to use it as little as possible during the tournament.

The dice, of course, bedevilled as much as they delighted. Mystery Predictor, having predoed both sides to score in ENG-CRC, saw their Kane prediction transform into one for CRC fullback Urena. Many ended up with eventual scorer Marcus Rashford. It was a strange night.

On reflection, the rules have been amended. Dice will only be utilised post-game. If your selected scorer comes on, even for 1 minute, they played and your predo stands.

If they did not then the dice will select a new scorer. If, in your original prediction, you predicted both sides to score then the dice could now predict a scorer from either team, not just a new player from the team the originally-predicted player plays for.

Let's all look forward to Thursday when we finally PREDO UP! for real!