The Strategist claims an early lead in The Seeders Cup with 3-point trifecta during Leg 1.
The rest of the field is separated by tiebreakers at 0 points.
In second, Atwork has 1 Correct Home Team Pick and 4 Seeder Points. B-Reezy and Craft Brew vie for third place with 1 Correct Home Team Pick and 2 Seeder Points.
Grouped in fifth, Wise Orangutan, Big Tuna, and Little Tuna have no Correct Home Team Picks and 2 Seeder Points.
Tied in eighth place, Kal Krome and The Bookie trot out of the gates with no Correct Home Team Pick and no Seeder Points.
Standings after Leg 1 of The Seeders Cup IV
Tiebreakers
Craft Brew holds a head-to-head tiebreaker over Wise Orangutan. Atwork holds a head-to-head tiebreaker over The Bookie.
Only B-Reezy, Atwork, and Craft Brew pick up a Correct Home Team Pick in Leg 1.
The Strategist ties Little Tuna and B-Reezy for most trifectas! Will she set a new record in the coming weeks?
At the head of the homestretch, The Strategist clinches the only trifecta in the week. She now has 7 Trifectas and 32 Correct Picks on the season.
The rest of the field now faces elimination.
Trailing by two lengths, Big Tuna keeps position of second place with 5 Trifectas and league-leading 31 Correct Picks. Behind by one head, both Craft Brew and B-Reezy contest for third with 5 Trifectas and 30 Correct Picks.
Wise Orangutan still trails the leaders in fifth with 5 Trifectas and only 25 Correct Picks.
Little Tuna remains in sixth place with 4 Trifectas and 28 Correct Picks, holding a slight lead over The Bookie in seventh place with 4 Trifectas and 27 Correct Picks.
Kal Krome and Atwork become the first Analysts eliminated from the Marathon of the Ass. With 3 Trifectas and 25 Correct Picks each on the year, neither Analyst can close the distance on The Strategist before the end of the season!
Trifectas
Standings after Week 14 for Analyst of the Year IV
Correct Picks
Tiebreaker after Week 14 for Analyst of the Year IV
“OR” in capital letters indicates start of a new scenario to clinch.
New England clinches AFC East division (2 points) with win or tie OR BUF loss or tie
Pittsburgh clinches AFC North division (2 points) with win or tie. Pittsburgh clinches a playoff berth (1 points) with BUF loss or tie.
Jacksonville clinches a playoff berth (1 pooint) with JAX win + BUF loss + MIA loss or tie + NYJ loss or tie + LAC loss or tie + OAK-KC game does not end in a tie.
Philadelphia clinches NFC East division (2 points) with win or tie OR DAL loss or tie.
Minnesota clinches NFC North division (2 points) with win or tie OR DET loss or tie + GB loss or tie
Los Angeles Rams clinch a playoff berth (1 point) with LAR win + DET loss or tie + GB loss or tie + DAL loss or tie + CAR loss + ATL loss
New Orleans clinches a playoff berth (1 point) with NO win + CAR loss or tie + DAL loss or tie OR NO win + CAR loss + DET loss or tie OR NO win + DET loss or tie + GB loss or tie OR NO win + CAR loss + NO clinches strength of victory tiebreaker over DAL OR NO win + CAR tie + NO clinches strength of victory tiebreaker over DAL and GB OR NO win + CAR tie + GB loss or tie + NO clinches strength of victory tiebreaker over DAL.
See Week 14 clinching scenarios here: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000888855/article/nfl-playoffclinching-scenarios-for-week-14.
Patriots clinch the AFC East with a win over the Dolphins OR if Bills lose to Colts on Sunday (Value = 2 Seeder Points).
Eagles clinch the NFC East title with a win over the Rams OR if Cowboys lose to the Giants (Value = 2 Seeder Points).
Vikings clinch NFC North with a win over the Panthers OR if both a) Lions lose to the Buccaneers AND b) Packers lose to Browns (Value = 2 Seeder Points).
The Analysts have selected their Home Teams to start the fourth annual Seeders’ Cup.
Wise Orangutan has dropped the redbirds and selects….. the Baltimore Ravens.
The entrants are:
Slate of Analysts for the Seeders’ Cup IV
Slate of Games
Slate of Games for Seeders’ Cup IV
The slate of games for The Seeders’ Cup IV will test the playoff-worthiness of the Analysts’ Home Teams in the final stretch as Analysts compete for Seeder bonus points in winning trifectas.
We have four head-to-head clashes between the Analysts’ Home Teams in the first two legs of the Cup: in Leg 1, conference upstarts Eagles and Rams face each other while division rivals Ravens and Steelers will destroy their hopes for a championship with needlessly brutal blows to the head that will eventually aid the Patriots; in Leg 2, division rivals Rams and Seahawks spar for supremacy in the NFC West as the Patriots visit the tattered remains of the Steelers after the prior week’s Ravens game.
During the month, a few un-owned teams will be competing for playoff seeds: Vikings (1), Falcons (3 and 4), Cowboys (3 and 4), and Titans (3), being the most likely. These un-owned teams, or others as the season unfolds, may be worth “seed” scores to the Analysts.
Home teams owned by an Analyst are in bold. The team at the left is the visiting team; the team at the right is the host (playing at home). There are a half dozen or more featured games, including one Thursday night games, two Sunday night games of the week (subject to flexing), two Saturday games, one Monday night games, and two Xmas day games.
Picks
Reminder: Every Analyst has a bias for his or her Home Team and may not pick the sponsored team to lose. Analysts do not have to pick his or her Home Team to win a trifecta or to earn the Seeder bonus points.
Additional points in a winning trifecta are scored for picking teams that clinch spots during the week according to the following: playoff spot/wildcard (1 point), division title (2 points), first round bye (3 points), and homefield advantage (4 points).
The Clearinghouse will start the Picks thread with a link and notes regarding which teams have an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot during the upcoming week.
Email three picks to The Bookie before each leg (week) of the Race. The first picks are due Thursday, December 7, before kickoff.
Coming out of the far turn, The Strategist clings to a one length lead over four close competitors. Heading into the home stretch, she has 6 Trifectas and 29 Correct Picks.
Jockeying for the inside rail over the rest of the field, however, Big Tuna and Craft Brew have made their moves in the final turn. Big Tuna moves into second place with 5 Trifectas and league-leading 30 Correct Picks over Craft Brew in third with 5 Trifectas and 29 Correct Picks.
B-Reezy has broken stride after one year of incredible picks. He now slips into fourth place after 5 Trifectas and 28 Correct Picks. Following in spurts and lopes, Wise Orangutan trails in fifth with 5 Trifectas and a league-worst 23 Correct Picks (!!??!!).
Little Tuna smells… a potential upset victory after moving into sixth place with 4 Trifectas and 27 Correct Picks, sending The Bookie back to seventh place after she let up in her euphoria over winning the back stretch (Player Haters Preakness). She gallops behind by a head, 4 Trifectas and 26 Correct Picks.
Kal Krome escapes elimination and gains ground on the front runner with 3 Trifectas and 24 Correct Picks. He runs one head ahead of Atwork with 3 Trifectas and 23 Correct Picks. These two Analysts face elimination next week if The Strategist ties the record for annual Trifectas next week!
Trifectas
Standings after Week 13 for Analyst of the Year IV
Correct Picks
Tiebreaker after Week 13 for Analyst of the Year IV
With a blistering 14 points in the final two legs of the Fibonacci Stakes, Little Tuna takes home her first purse of the season. With winning trifectas in three of five legs, she sets the record for the most points scored in a Fibonacci in league history!
From the middle of the pack, Big Tuna and Kal Krome surge for place and show. Big Tuna’s halos netted him 4 Correct Home Team Picks to edge Kal Krome by a beak (3 Correct Home Team Picks).
Little Tuna would have remained out of reach no matter what he chose to do, but Craft Brew finishes in fourth with 8 Trifecta points after making what most other Analysts agree was, chiefly, a unwise swap in the home stretch.
Speaking of, chiefly, bad decisions, The Strategist finishes in fifth (4 Trifecta points), one length ahead of The Bookie (3 Trifecta points, 6th) and Wise Orangutan (3 Trifecta points, 7th).
B-Reezy, who chiefly is responsible for the poor showing of the former front runners in the AoY competition, edges out Atwork in ninth, who chiefly gets a consolation prize for fooling B-Reezy into making a bad choice, chiefly, in Home Team.
The name of the game is to spot the contenders over the pretenders, so kudos to the Analysts with 3+ Correct Home Team Picks!
Trifecta Points
Standings after Final Results of Fibonacci Stakes IV
Tiebreakers
Tiebreakers after Final Results of Fibonacci Stakes IV
Bye weeks for Home Teams are grayed out (Table 2).
The Bookie: Rams*/Steelers*/Chiefs*
The Big Tuna: Saints*/Seahawks*/Patriots*
Little Tuna: Patriots*/Rams*/Seahawks*
Wise Orangutan: Chiefs*/Eagles*/Bills
The Strategist: Steelers*/Chiefs*/Eagles*
Kal Krome: Seahawks*/Saints*/Steelers*
B-Reezy: Chiefs*/Saints*/Steelers*
Atwork: Eagles*/Chiefs*/Rams*
Craft Brew: Steelers*/Patriots*/Chiefs
Analyst of the Week
Kal Krome
Our Celebrity Analyst Roasters:
The Bookie: Kal Krome grew up in Alaska where hockey is the favored sport. So when moving to Washington and watching the Seahawks he was known to yell at the refs “That was icing!” Eventually he learned the penalties and watched the Seahawks commit many of them. When he joined the WFTL he felt he was ready to make educated picks. He occasionally has stumbled onto a correct trifecta but hastily picks himself up, brushes himself off and follows the next week with “what was he thinking?” Because of this he began to exaggerate about himself. So he changed his dog Jake’s name to Five Miles so he could tell everyone he walked Five Miles today.
Big Tuna: Umm. No. I believe that man would frighten Chuck Norris.
Little Tuna: Kal Krome mottos are: First Aide kit? “You mean duct tape!”
Decaffeinated coffee? “You mean bitch tea!”
The Wise Orangutan: I have had plenty of opportunities to roast Kal Krome over the past two years, so I will just wish him happy holidays and thank him for the past two years. Besides, who knows when I will need to find a funny farm to pasture The Bookie and Little Tuna.
The Strategist: Kal has taken this derby thing wayyy too seriously. He even has the best horse name! But he needs to stop getting his picks from his actual horses…yes, it’s a “horse” race but…umm…it’s football (with people).
Craft Brew: Bookie (in drivers seat). “Kal krome. Check to see if my rear blinkers are working?”
Kal krome ( behind car). “Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes. No. ”
B-Reezy: You sure know how to pick them!!!
Atwork: You’re such a nice guy to have faith in the Hawks these last years Kal Krome but I think it’s time to pick one of the superior birds as shown by this season!
The Results Are (Coming) In:
The Bookie: Rams*/Steelers*/Chiefs*
The Big Tuna: Saints*/Seahawks*/Patriots* (8 points)
Little Tuna: Patriots*/Rams*/Seahawks* (8 points)
Wise Orangutan: Chiefs*/Eagles*/Bills
The Strategist: Steelers*/Chiefs*/Eagles*
Kal Krome: Seahawks*/Saints*/Steelers* (8 points)
B-Reezy: Chiefs*/Saints*/Steelers*
Atwork: Eagles*/Chiefs*/Rams*
Craft Brew: Steelers*/Patriots*/Chiefs*
As we thought last week, no Analyst has been eliminated in the Fibonacci Stakes yet… The base Trifecta is worth 5 points and with 3 Fibonacci bonuses an Analyst can earn 8 points total to overtake the current leaders. But, but, but…
The leaders, Little Tuna and Craft Brew, have an advantage with this week’s slate of (only) 6 games. A reminder to the other Analysts: if you have the same picks as the leaders, you will be boxed out of the winner’s circle! If the Analysts wipe out, Little Tuna coasts to a win.
That said, the race is quite a mess and The Clearinghouse begins with a disclaimer… I think this is correct!
The front runners:
Little Tuna: Although Little Tuna leads by 1 Trifecta point, Craft Brew is in a dead heat for first place. The only way for her to have a guaranteed win is to take the same three teams as last week for 8 points total. If Little Tuna changes even one team and Craft Brew comes from behind to tie her in Trifecta points, he will win due to a tiebreaker advantage (note: assuming both keep their Home Teams, see below!). They both have the Seahawks and Patriots from last week, they both have 3 Correct Home Team Selections, and they both have 6 Fibonacci bonus points. If Little Tuna tries to box out Craft Brew by taking the same three teams (i.e., adding the Steelers to her list), Craft Brew will gain an extra Fibonacci point in a winning trifecta and then win the Fibonacci Stakes based on the third tiebreaker: most Fibonacci bonus points during the race. On the other hand, if Craft Brew does not earn a trifecta, then Little Tuna beats every other Analyst if she gets a Trifecta worth any value.
Craft Brew: Whereas Little Tuna has to defend against Craft Brew on her heels and the rest of the field far behind, Craft Brew really only needs to focus on beating the front runner. If he gets a winning trifecta and ties or takes the lead over Little Tuna, he wins. Thus, the Trifecta is his main concern. Added note to Craft Brew: Holding the same three teams will prevent Little Tuna from boxing you out. Conversely, swapping out the Steelers for any another team gives Little Tuna an advantage if she keeps the Patriots or takes more Fibonacci bonus picks.
The laggards:
While Little Tuna and Craft Brew have to strategize against each other, the bottom of the field cannot win unless neither front runner get a Trifecta. Starting at the bottom of the field, where the scenarios are easier:
Atwork: Lucky you, no need to send your picks this week! You must take Eagles, Saints, Steelers again for 8 points and a possible 9 points total. To win, however, you need help: the Patriots must also lose and all other Analysts must not exceed 9 points total AND no more than 3 Home Team Selections. Atwork is 3 lengths behind in the AoY, so the Fibonacci may be the best play for more purse this year!
B-Reezy: As he is wont to do, B-Reezy will have to weigh the chance to win the Fibonacci versus the chance to defend his AoY crown. Unlike Atwork, B-Reezy cannot end in a tie with Little Tuna. He must also keep the same three teams — Chiefs*/Saints*/Steelers* — and hope not to end in a tie with other Analysts because his Home Team has yielded a dismal 0 Correct Home Team Selections. With 10 points, the one Analyst he beats in a tie is…
Wise Orangutan: Wise O. has 3 trifecta points, but due to taking the Seahawks and Eagles last week (who play each other this week), he can only reach 10 points total. He will lose in most tie scenarios, so none of the other Analysts need to concern themselves with his picks–and all can expect a bizarre pick if Wise O. wants to win the Fibonacci Stakes rather than the AoY… in other words, Go Bills!
The contenders:
The other Analysts with 3 or 4 trifecta points and the opportunity to earn 8 points this week:
One of the bizarr-o aspects of this little game is that Analysts rarely have the same three picks! Surprisingly, every Analyst not named Wise O. who has 3 Trifecta points can earn 8 points this week and not worry about being boxed out. However, if the Fibonacci Stakes ends in a tie at 11 points among the Analysts who had 3 points to start Leg 4, the order of strength is:
The Bookie: The Bookie has a head-to-head tiebreaker over Big Tuna, 3 Correct Home Team Selections, and 6 Fibonacci bonus points. If her same three teams win and the front runners lag, she wins the Fibonacci Stakes. If the race ends in a tie of less than 10 points, she will still have her head-to-head advantage over Big Tuna and advantages over Kal Krome provided she keeps the Rams in her winning Trifecta.
Big Tuna: With the loss to The Bookie, Big Tuna has to avoid a tie with The Bookie. His Home Team plays The Strategist’s Home Team this week, and that will determine the tiebreaker between the two. If he expects the Saints to beat the Panthers this week, he can keep the Saints and play for a tie with The Strategist. Other than The Bookie, Big also holds advantages over all other Analysts who can reach 10 or more points this weekend.
Kal Krome: Kal Krome has only 2 Correct Home Team Picks, so he trails The Bookie and Big Tuna in a tie. He can win with the same three teams as last week if the Patriots and Chiefs also lose. He beats the Wise O. in a tiebreaker due to head-to-head competition.
Leaving….
The Strategist: In third place currently with 4 Trifecta points, the Strategist has a couple of options provided that Little Tuna and Craft Brew fail to close out the race. With the same three teams, she reaches 12 points and wins outright. If she shoots for 11 points, she has to find a combination that does end in a tie with The Bookie, Big Tuna, or Kal Krome–all three have more Home Team Picks at this time. Her Panthers play Big Tuna’s Saints this week, so if she expects the Panthers to win, her primary threat is The Bookie because Kal Krome had the Saints last week (he will either lose with the Saints or have to change his pick).
AoY Eliminations:
At this time, only Kal Krome can be eliminated before Week 13 in the Analyst of the Year Competition. If The Strategist earns 1 more Trifecta and Kal Krome does not, he will be down by 5 Trifectas with only 4 weeks remaining.
After a disappointing run around the far turn, Chiefly, the front runners now find themselves challenged by the young colt, Craft Brew!
The Strategist remains in first with 6 Trifectas and 28 Correct Picks, but her attempt to tie the record for 7 Trifectas in a single season has remained elusive.
Charging from the middle of the pack, Craft Brew notches his 5th Trifecta and 27th Correct Pick to move into second place.
With one un-Saintly Correct Pick in Week 12, B-Reezy falls into third place with 5 Trifectas and 26 Correct Picks. Will the defending Analyst of the Year be able to defend his crown down the home stretch?!!?
Wise Orangutan slips into fourth place with 5 Trifectas and a paltry 23 Correct Picks.
Big Tuna drops one place, into fifth, with 4 Trifectas but also with a place-worthy 27 Correct Picks that gives him an opportunity on the outside rail. A few heads behind, The Bookie claims sixth place with 4 Trifectas and 24 Correct Picks.
At the back of the field, Little Tuna jumps Atwork to take seventh place with 3 Trifectas and 24 Correct Picks–edging the young stallion’s 3 Trifectas and 22 Correct Picks.
Kal Krome–the only true rancher among the lot of us!–brings up the rear, still struggling to sell the retired Minds Blank to the stud farm so that he can focus on raising new fillies.
Trifectas
Standings after Week 12 for Analyst of the Year IV
Correct Picks
Tiebreaker after Week 12 for Analyst of the Year IV
