FanPost

Pick 256 - Playoffs, Round 2

[Preface - One.Cool.Customer has chosen to not operate a Pick 256 playoff contest this year, but has given me permission to run it if I wished.

I did.

Most people enjoyed what he did last year, so I re-ran everything exactly as he did it last year.]

From The Cool One:

Hey BTB community,

The regular season is over. Now, it's time to kick off our own Playoff Pick 'Em challenge here on BTB. Like we did during our Pick 256 Challenge during the regular season, we're going to ask you to pick the straight up winners for each playoff weekend all the way through to the Super Bowl.

But we'll use a different scoring system for our Playoff Pick 'Em than we did for our Pick 256 Challenge.

Our Playoff Pick 'Em will use a Confidence Points scoring system. Confidence Points are used to give a different weight to each game in each playoff round. You'll assign a point value (see below) to each game based on how strongly you feel about the accuracy of your selection. If your selection is correct, you'll receive points equal to the confidence-point value you associated with that game.

- In Playoff Weeks 1 and 2 (4 games each), the options will be 4, 8, 12, or 16 points.

- In Playoff Week 3 (2 games), the options will be 8 or 16 points.

- In Playoff Week 4 (Super Bowl), the only option will be 16 points.

This week, you will assign 16 points to the game you feel most strongly about, 12 points to the next game, 8 points to the next and 4 points to the game you feel least strongly about. You must assign those four values to the four games.

Here's an example of what your picks could look like:

Game Straight up winner Confidence Points
Kansas City @ New England
NE 4
Green Bay @ Arizona
ARI 8
Seattle @ Carolina
CAR 12
Pittsburgh @ Denver
DEN 16

Importantly, you have to assign a different Confidence Points number to each game and cannot assign the same number to multiple games. In case you fail to adhere to these very, very simple instructions, your confidence points will be corrected using the consensus confidence points as a benchmark, if needed.

In the example above, if all four home teams were to emerge as winners, you'd get 16 points for the Dallas win and 4 points for the Carolina win. You wouldn't lose points for incorrectly picking the other two games. The maximum amount of points possible on Division Round weekend is 40, the lowest possible score is zero.

Division Round Picks

Click on the link below and you'll be taken directly to the Playoff Pick 'em entry form where you can select the teams you like for the win and assign your Confidence Points.

If you bookmarked the link this season from one of the Front Page articles, you may continue to use that link to auto-fill your BTB user name into the entry form (in most cases). I can't post that link here. It only works on the Front Page. If I post it here, and if you use it, it will auto-fill my username, not yours.

Here's an alternative link that works without the auto-fill - just remember to spell your username correctly.

Alternative Playoff Pick 'Em Entry Form

If you prefer not to use your BTB user name, or are not a BTB member, go ahead and enter a name of your choosing, but try to stick with that name throughout the playoffs.

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The fine print

Submissions for the Playoff Pick 'Em have to be in by the start of the first game on Saturday at 3:35 PM CT (Cowboys' Time). To keep a level playing field for everybody, late submissions will not be accepted (all entries are time-stamped). This gives you a little over four days for your pick submission. In case of multiple submissions, we will always use the last submission as the final and valid one.

My (hookerhome) Wild Card Weekend Report:

I noticed going in that almost everyone was fawning over the four teams to successfully claim wild-card slots, and giving nearly universal disrespect to the non-bye division champions.

In my infinite wisdom, I decided to throw some love to the division champions, each playing at home, and hosting teams favored to beat them. My greatest confidence was in Minnesota using the elements to their advantage to knock off Seattle. But, in the end, my confidence in each home team was rewarded as much as my picking of the Cowboys this season.

Since I get no points for participation (or, from managing this extension of Pick 256), I am solidly in the caboose with a score of 0. I'm only forty confidence points behind those who set the pace with a perfect score.

We are actually tracking three versions of the contest during these playoffs:

  • One.Cool.Customer's version - what I am "officially" running here, and what is outlined above - pick each game each week, and assign confidence points
  • R2D2/KD Drummond version - pick all eleven games before any kick off; two are participating, and both are still alive as their picks all won this past weekend
  • Pick 267 - proposed by Aggie Man; combine regular season and playoff picks for one combined total; I am tracking game picks from this contest with other picks declared by posters in comments on my and other threads

I have had an incredibly difficult week, and I am sorry to be so late with last weekend's results and opening up the new contest. The contest is open, so please post picks.

Here's a quick look at the scores from this past weekend. First, using One.Cool.Customer's Confidence Points, we had ninety-nine participants. Twenty-seven posted perfect scores, so they all lead with forty points. I am one of three with zero, as we all picked the road teams in all games. Everyone else is somewhere in between. I am not going to take any more time to construct a table to report everyone's names, so I will just list them this way:

  • 40 - Aggie Man, CapitalT, CowboysNation, DorieStreet, Frank Stanford, holyroof, ibleedcowboyblue, I'm_people_too, just-the-facts, kethry1313, Markythearky, MinasIthil92, MUTTS, NCstar, oldboysfan, PAPAGDAVIS69, Reno Cowboy, Sean N, Stevefromerrick, T Zig, TazJr89, Tennessee_Jed, Truebluedcfan, UTcowboy, Waterfall88, westmodelmarket, Wfldude@gmail.com
  • 36 - burrito electrico, c.matson18, dcfansinceiwasababy, Dithanial, Glenstorm68, JDOBERMANS, Lajitas Lava, mahenza, Mikhaili, MrsOldboysfan, nutriaboudin, Oldeschool, scotscowboyfan, tbar1, Tr1v1al, Trent Schoneweis
  • 32 - 4evercowboy, 4thdownhero, banananas, bigoljimbo, carguy102, DSEL, flatbread, galtex, lenboy, maragath, Max2, Pete5700, Realist Larry, Silverblue, Starfire6
  • 28 - boys.camncrew, Canadian Cowboy_74, cowtownNcowboysfan, DalaiLuke, Densa, Gregory_Regularly, hbtc, j-man, Katana, quinduno, RoSHa, snipeb41, Starheel42, TallgrassPrairie, Tigercowboy
  • 24 - Aaa61aaa, Benthere, CTCowboy, Dallasdave1966, enogueras, HAWKAMANIA, jalifia, Supherbyus, Witten mittens
  • 20 - ??, DandyDanny, earl, Mark Barrington, stanthecowboyfan
  • 16 - jwdge, Shadowcat, Switters023, Troy, Zubius
  • 12 - 1Bullseye, Jessy S
  • 8 - DarthGrumpa
  • 4 - thesirknight
  • 0 - apprentice_curmudgeon, hookerhome, TRAVLR

Before I edited my last FanPost, I left up the auto-populate link (the one that you use from a front-page story to automatically enter your username). That only works from the Front Page. In my FanPost, that automatically enters my username. So, someone posted an entry as "hookerhome". I should keep it; his twenty points was much better than I really did.

I also had to edit five of the confidence points totals, as the final entries didn't have a different number for each game. Here's how I adjusted your points whenever there were duplicate numbers:

  • I followed the consensus preferences (11.3 average for KC, 11.0 for SEA, 9.1 for GB, and 8.4 for PIT). So, if, for example, you put 16 on every game, then KC-HOU would have stayed 16, SEA-MIN would have become 12, GB-WAS would have become 8, and PIT-CIN would have become 4.
  • Three of the five had all four games right anyway, so there was no real adjustment for them.

In the "KD - Pick 11" version, both Aggie Man and Ride Together, Die Together got all four games right, and are still alive with perfection going into the Division Round.

I have not yet compiled "Pick 267" scores - integrating correct picks from the Wild Card Weekend into the season-long Pick 256 contest. I can say, though, that the top was unchanged. oldboysfan is still on top, as he and Aggie Man both got all four games. I may just compile all of those scores at the end of the playoffs.

Again, sorry to be so late getting this up. Thanks for your support.

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.