NCAA Pick'em Contest

[NCCubFan]

With the NCAA tournament about to begin I've set up a group for Yahoo's Tournament Pick'em contest. Group ID 75312, password gocubs. I'm also inviting members of a couple of my fantasy leagues.

 

I'm using a new scoring option this year called Seed Difference Bonus to increase interest by rewarding correct picking of upsets. If you correctly pick a lower seeded team you get a bonus equal to the difference in seeding. For example, if in the first round you correctly pick a #12 seed over a #5 seed, you get 7 bonus points in addition to the point for a correct pick (12 - 5 = 7).

[Mephistopheles]

Who won last year?

[Outshined_One]

When in doubt, bash Duke.

[NCCubFan]

Who won last year?

Not me.

[NCCubFan]

You can ow make your picks. The deadline for submitting picks for the entire tournament is the scheduled tipoff time for the first game on Thursday (the play-in game isn't part of the contest). Until that time you can change your picks.

[ChiCubsFan]

With the NCAA tournament about to begin I've set up a group for Yahoo's Tournament Pick'em contest. Group ID 75312, password gocubs. I'm also inviting members of a couple of my fantasy leagues.

 

I'm using a new scoring option this year called Seed Difference Bonus to increase interest by rewarding correct picking of upsets. If you correctly pick a lower seeded team you get a bonus equal to the difference in seeding. For example, if in the first round you correctly pick a #12 seed over a #5 seed, you get 7 bonus points in addition to the point for a correct pick (12 - 5 = 7).

 

I've done this scoring before and I found it to be pretty horrible. Pretty much just pick all underdogs. You'll miss on most your picks, but still end up winning by a good margin. I like the idea of rewarding successfully picking upsets, but not with such a drastic bonus.

[NCCubFan]

With the NCAA tournament about to begin I've set up a group for Yahoo's Tournament Pick'em contest. Group ID 75312, password gocubs. I'm also inviting members of a couple of my fantasy leagues.

 

I'm using a new scoring option this year called Seed Difference Bonus to increase interest by rewarding correct picking of upsets. If you correctly pick a lower seeded team you get a bonus equal to the difference in seeding. For example, if in the first round you correctly pick a #12 seed over a #5 seed, you get 7 bonus points in addition to the point for a correct pick (12 - 5 = 7).

 

I've done this scoring before and I found it to be pretty horrible. Pretty much just pick all underdogs. You'll miss on most your picks, but still end up winning by a good margin. I like the idea of rewarding successfully picking upsets, but not with such a drastic bonus.

There is an alternative for rewarding bonuses which does not take seed differential into account, but I don't really like that because that system treats piking a #9 seed over a #8 the same as, say, picking a #13 over a #4. If we're going to reward picking upsets at all I think we should differentiate between a true upset and what in effect should be an even matchup.

 

One thing worth pointing out is that, even though the bonus system is used within the group, the overall standings (and cash prizes) are based on the default scoring system without bonus points. So it would be easy to recreate the group standings without the bonus and see how much of a difference it makes.

[Flames24Rulz]

I don't remember who won, but looking at my stats from last year, I was 2nd out of 54 in the orginal pick'em and then 2nd of 13 in the second chance pool. Hopefully I can one up that this year.

[NCCubFan]

I don't remember who won, but looking at my stats from last year, I was 2nd out of 54 in the orginal pick'em and then 2nd of 13 in the second chance pool. Hopefully I can one up that this year.

I suspect Meph probably won. I thought his asking was his way of bragging. I could be wrong.

 

And BTW, this year we have an entry called Meth's System Picks. :D

[Mephistopheles]

I don't remember who won, but looking at my stats from last year, I was 2nd out of 54 in the orginal pick'em and then 2nd of 13 in the second chance pool. Hopefully I can one up that this year.

I suspect Meph probably won. I thought his asking was his way of bragging. I could be wrong.

 

And BTW, this year we have an entry called Meth's System Picks. :D

 

I did win.

 

I haven't signed up this year yet.

[NCCubFan]

I haven't signed up this year yet.

I didn't think so; you'd know how to spell Meph correctly. An obvious parody by someone else.

[Derwood]

I don't remember who won, but looking at my stats from last year, I was 2nd out of 54 in the orginal pick'em and then 2nd of 13 in the second chance pool. Hopefully I can one up that this year.

I suspect Meph probably won. I thought his asking was his way of bragging. I could be wrong.

 

And BTW, this year we have an entry called Meth's System Picks. :D

 

they must have dropped out or changed their name, because I don't see that one.

[NCCubFan]

I don't remember who won, but looking at my stats from last year, I was 2nd out of 54 in the orginal pick'em and then 2nd of 13 in the second chance pool. Hopefully I can one up that this year.

I suspect Meph probably won. I thought his asking was his way of bragging. I could be wrong.

 

And BTW, this year we have an entry called Meth's System Picks. :D

 

they must have dropped out or changed their name, because I don't see that one.

It's still there, but you have to click on View Complete Standings to see it. Only the top 10 (which, for now, means the first 10 to sign up) are shown on the main group page; the rest show up if you click on the View Complete Standings link.

[CubbieBum]

This bonus points thing is very stupid. Your bonus for picking an upset is that you got points for the winning team that most of the others didn't. People are getting double, triple ... etc. points. Someone who picks a low percentage of the games can easily win this over someone who picked a good percentage if they get all the upsets.

 

For instance if I only got the three upsets right so far I would have 10 points meaning I could be tied with someone who had picked 10 of the 14 right.

[Mark_R]

Yeah, I lead this in total wins thus far, and I'm in dead last. I mean, come on.

[NCCubFan]

I'm using a different scoring system for the Second Chance contest since this one doesn't seem too popular (sometimes you don't know how things work out until you try). I still like the idea of a bonus for correctly picking an upset (it rewards taking chances), but for the Second Chance contest I'm using the option where there's a flat one-point bonus for correctly picking a lower seed rather than basing the bonus on seed differential. And keep in mind that, for the cash prizes, scoring is based on Yahoo's default scoring without bonuses. The system with bonuses for this league is for bragging rights only; nobody's actually losing money over it.

 

Speaking of the Second Chance contest, it's now open. I copied the membership from this contest so people in the current contest should receive an automatic invitation to join by clicking on the link without needing to enter a group ID and password. Anybody who missed out on the original contest that would like to participate in the Second Chance contest can do so using group ID 8501 and password gocubs.

 

And BTW, I LOVE the system for the current contest because it has me in first place for now. :P

[Mark Priors Calves]

the scoring system being used sucks. why reinvent the wheel?

[erik316wttn]

Bah. I really took it on the chin today. I had West Virginia in the Elite 8, and my upset detector was screaming when picking the Cornell/Missouri game... guess I was wrong about that one too.

 

17 of 24 so far after being 16 of 20 at one point.

[The Voice of Reason]

the scoring system being used sucks. why reinvent the wheel?

 

Disagree. This is a great scoring system. It doesn't take any skill to go chalk by picking all the favorites. It takes guts to pick 5s over 12s like Western Kentucky, Arizona and Wisconsin and props to those that picked Cleveland State.

 

You didn't pick any upsets and you were penalized for it. It's a simple as that.

[Mark Priors Calves]

the scoring system being used sucks. why reinvent the wheel?

 

Disagree. This is a great scoring system. It doesn't take any skill to go chalk by picking all the favorites. It takes guts to pick 5s over 12s like Western Kentucky, Arizona and Wisconsin and props to those that picked Cleveland State.

 

You didn't pick any upsets and you were penalized for it. It's a simple as that.

 

i don't care that i'm doing bad. i'd be doing bad with either scoring system, its irrelevant to my point.

 

the simplest and best scoring system is to reward people who pick the most correct games. this scoring system doesn't do that. i don't care about who has "guts" or some other nonsense, it should be who picks the winners correctly regardless if its an upset or not.

[The Voice of Reason]

the scoring system being used sucks. why reinvent the wheel?

 

Disagree. This is a great scoring system. It doesn't take any skill to go chalk by picking all the favorites. It takes guts to pick 5s over 12s like Western Kentucky, Arizona and Wisconsin and props to those that picked Cleveland State.

 

You didn't pick any upsets and you were penalized for it. It's a simple as that.

 

i don't care that i'm doing bad. i'd be doing bad with either scoring system, its irrelevant to my point.

 

the simplest and best scoring system is to reward people who pick the most correct games. this scoring system doesn't do that. i don't care about who has "guts" or some other nonsense, it should be who picks the winners correctly regardless if its an upset or not.

 

Those pools tend to be boring with the majority of the participants picking the lower seeds. Most brackets look relatively the same. It's a lot harder to pick upsets and those that do should be rewarded.

[Mark Priors Calves]

the scoring system being used sucks. why reinvent the wheel?

 

Disagree. This is a great scoring system. It doesn't take any skill to go chalk by picking all the favorites. It takes guts to pick 5s over 12s like Western Kentucky, Arizona and Wisconsin and props to those that picked Cleveland State.

 

You didn't pick any upsets and you were penalized for it. It's a simple as that.

 

i don't care that i'm doing bad. i'd be doing bad with either scoring system, its irrelevant to my point.

 

the simplest and best scoring system is to reward people who pick the most correct games. this scoring system doesn't do that. i don't care about who has "guts" or some other nonsense, it should be who picks the winners correctly regardless if its an upset or not.

 

Those pools tend to be boring with the majority of the participants picking the lower seeds. Most brackets look relatively the same. It's a lot harder to pick upsets and those that do should be rewarded.

i agree with your first statement. but the key for winning pools with a large number of entries is picking the majority of the games correctly and also nailing the key upsets. people that do that correctly should win. in this system, there's definitely a reward for people simply picking a lot of upsets in hopes of getting "bonus points". either way, this isn't that big of a deal, but i'm just not a fan of this scoring.

[NCCubFan]

It's obvious that different people have different opinions about the scoring system. That's always going to be the case when there are different options to choose from; not everybody is going to agree. I still feel that rewarding risk-taking adds to the fun by encouraging people to pick upsets, but as I mentioned earlier in this thread the system of tying the number of bonus points to the seed differential may have been going a bit overboard. So for the second chance contest I'm sticking with having a bonus for picking upsets, but using the option where it's a straight one-point bonus rather than depending on the seed differential. I think that would eliminate the issue of some people having more bonus points than correct pick points while preserving the reward for picking upsets. And as I've mentioned before the overall (as opposed to group) standings and cash awards don't use bonus points, so people can still see where they stand based solely on correct picks and brag about it. Also, I think the effect of bonus points will decrease as the tournament progresses. Each subsequent round the number of points per correct pick doubles, while the bonus points remain the same. Also, there normally are fewer big upsets as the tournament moves on. So what initially may appear to be an excessive effect of bonus points will likely work itself out in the end.

[The Voice of Reason]

It's obvious that different people have different opinions about the scoring system. That's always going to be the case when there are different options to choose from; not everybody is going to agree. I still feel that rewarding risk-taking adds to the fun by encouraging people to pick upsets, but as I mentioned earlier in this thread the system of tying the number of bonus points to the seed differential may have been going a bit overboard. So for the second chance contest I'm sticking with having a bonus for picking upsets, but using the option where it's a straight one-point bonus rather than depending on the seed differential. I think that would eliminate the issue of some people having more bonus points than correct pick points while preserving the reward for picking upsets. And as I've mentioned before the overall (as opposed to group) standings and cash awards don't use bonus points, so people can still see where they stand based solely on correct picks and brag about it. Also, I think the effect of bonus points will decrease as the tournament progresses. Each subsequent round the number of points per correct pick doubles, while the bonus points remain the same. Also, there normally are fewer big upsets as the tournament moves on. So what initially may appear to be an excessive effect of bonus points will likely work itself out in the end.

 

Great job, thanks for putting it together.

[Andy]

Yeah, I'm all for rewarding upset picks, but I think what people are trying to say is that it shouldn't influence your actual opinions so much, by making the entire score be basically about how many upsets you picked.