Sports-Adjacent Games March 18, 2019 7:44 PM Subscribe
Do you like basketball, and visualizations of powers of two? We have a Men's Tournament Challenge Group and a Women's Tournament Challenge Group! Do you prefer to accumulate statistics over the course of 162 contests? We have a Fantasy Baseball League! Do you like trivia? We're mid-season in LearnedLeague 80, and we have a Private Rundle!
NCAA Men's Tournament Challenge (Men's college basketball): Group is "MetaFilter 2019" and password is "blue". Remember to get your bracket in in time--games start Thursday!
NCAA Women's Tournament Challenge (Women's college basketball): Group is "MetaFilter 2019" and password is "blue". Remember to get your bracket in in time--games start Friday!
Fantasy Baseball: The league isn't publicly visible, so the link goes to the general Yahoo fantasy baseball page. We have a (some number between 10 and 20)-team rotisserie-style league that's been around for several years. We'll draft at some point in the next couple of weeks. We're looking for active owners; if you're more of a set-it-and-forget-it type, this may not be for you. If you like making moves and planning trades and all that, this probably is for you. Any of our current owners can invite you, so hit us up in the thread if you want in.
LearnedLeague: It's midseason, but I figured I would throw this out there anyway while I was making a MetaTalk post. If you need a referral, comment or MeMail me or one of the other LLamas on the definitely-out-of-date Wiki list. You have to promise to Not Forfeit (JOSH) and Not Cheat. If you're in already and you want in on the currently-20-member Private Rundle, I can help you out with that for next time, too.
Good luck!
NCAA Men's Tournament Challenge (Men's college basketball): Group is "MetaFilter 2019" and password is "blue". Remember to get your bracket in in time--games start Thursday!
NCAA Women's Tournament Challenge (Women's college basketball): Group is "MetaFilter 2019" and password is "blue". Remember to get your bracket in in time--games start Friday!
Fantasy Baseball: The league isn't publicly visible, so the link goes to the general Yahoo fantasy baseball page. We have a (some number between 10 and 20)-team rotisserie-style league that's been around for several years. We'll draft at some point in the next couple of weeks. We're looking for active owners; if you're more of a set-it-and-forget-it type, this may not be for you. If you like making moves and planning trades and all that, this probably is for you. Any of our current owners can invite you, so hit us up in the thread if you want in.
LearnedLeague: It's midseason, but I figured I would throw this out there anyway while I was making a MetaTalk post. If you need a referral, comment or MeMail me or one of the other LLamas on the definitely-out-of-date Wiki list. You have to promise to Not Forfeit (JOSH) and Not Cheat. If you're in already and you want in on the currently-20-member Private Rundle, I can help you out with that for next time, too.
Good luck!
I'm not proud (or really up on men's college basketball), but even so, I'm aware of the force of nature that is Zion Williamson, and that he probably should already be in the NBA. Barring a second shoe explosion, I can't see any way that Duke doesn't win... leading to a random fluke in the lottery that somehow lands the Bulls the #1 pick.
posted by Ghidorah at 9:09 PM on March 18, 2019
posted by Ghidorah at 9:09 PM on March 18, 2019
I am Last Place in the men's group! I will also make a women's bracket when I get a moment, which will hopefully also be Last Place.
(Yes, I have a terrible sense of humor)
posted by Literaryhero at 11:33 PM on March 18, 2019
(Yes, I have a terrible sense of humor)
posted by Literaryhero at 11:33 PM on March 18, 2019
Our fantasy baseball commissioner has made a dedicated post for fantasy baseball signups! We're drafting Sunday evening.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:50 AM on March 19, 2019
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:50 AM on March 19, 2019
Men's side, I think this is the year mid-majors break things wide open, so I have the bold Wofford heavy bracket. We'll see what happens.
Women's side, I'm not entirely sold that my Wolfpack is going to completely take it, but we're a THREE SEED, I got to hope. And I can hope for an all ACC final four, even if I'd rather not claim Syracuse. ;)
posted by joycehealy at 5:23 AM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
Women's side, I'm not entirely sold that my Wolfpack is going to completely take it, but we're a THREE SEED, I got to hope. And I can hope for an all ACC final four, even if I'd rather not claim Syracuse. ;)
posted by joycehealy at 5:23 AM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
Time to create the most random of randomized brackets, because sometimes, the prettiest campus also has the best sports team!
posted by PearlRose at 7:43 AM on March 19, 2019
posted by PearlRose at 7:43 AM on March 19, 2019
This has been a brutal LearnedLeague season for me. It likely won't be my worst performance (measured by TCA), but despite a 9(6) on Match Day 2, I've been skating a point or two ahead of relegation for most of LL80, after reaching as high as 4th place late in LL79. Stupid brain, thinking you're so smart for coming up with "ALMANAC".
posted by Rock Steady at 10:48 AM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Rock Steady at 10:48 AM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
You are clearly using up all your success in the private rundle. Be less successful there and you should be safe in your A rundle. It’s just simple math.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:07 PM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:07 PM on March 19, 2019 [1 favorite]
bold Wofford heavy
This sounds like one of those scenarios from the end of WarGames.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:57 PM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]
This sounds like one of those scenarios from the end of WarGames.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:57 PM on March 19, 2019 [2 favorites]
I know absolutely nothing about basketball, but BOY OH BOY is filling out a bracket my favorite thing. Let's do this!
posted by missmary6 at 8:17 AM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by missmary6 at 8:17 AM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]
I have filled out brackets for the men's group. GO IONA.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:56 PM on March 20, 2019
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 8:56 PM on March 20, 2019
Filled out my men’s bracket and am ready to lose!
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:22 AM on March 21, 2019
posted by chainsofreedom at 6:22 AM on March 21, 2019
I have no idea what is happening, but I'll fill out some brackets.
posted by box at 8:00 AM on March 21, 2019
posted by box at 8:00 AM on March 21, 2019
If anyone's watching today, I put up a Fanfare post for March Madness, so come on over.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:53 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:53 AM on March 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
Alright everybody, we're locked with 30 live entries in the Men's challenge (Last Place is currently tied for first place). But there's still time to make a Women's bracket! And plenty of spots!
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:32 PM on March 21, 2019
posted by Huffy Puffy at 6:32 PM on March 21, 2019
Having somehow managed to win the challenge last year, I am currently the proud guardian of the MeFi souvenir NCAA basketball, which I will be very glad to mail to this year's men's challenge winner.
Go Heels!
posted by torridly at 7:06 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Go Heels!
posted by torridly at 7:06 AM on March 22, 2019 [1 favorite]
Holy cow, for someone who couldn’t figure out that I could rename the ESPN moniker-I am shocked at my rank! I was also bummed by UMBC’s women’s team not making it to The Dance, and defaulting to the Terps as my local favorite. Looking forward to their game at 11. Hoping UMBC women land a good coach.
posted by childofTethys at 6:02 AM on March 23, 2019
posted by childofTethys at 6:02 AM on March 23, 2019
Rock Steady: This has been a brutal LearnedLeague season for me. It likely won't be my worst performance (measured by TCA), but despite a 9(6) on Match Day 2, I've been skating a point or two ahead of relegation for most of LL80, after reaching as high as 4th place late in LL79. Stupid brain, thinking you're so smart for coming up with "ALMANAC".
Huffy Puffy: You are clearly using up all your success in the private rundle. Be less successful there and you should be safe in your A rundle. It’s just simple math.
See, it worked! You only had to slip 1 spot, on a tiebreaker, to save your spot in your regular rundle.
In celebration of our finish atop the private rundle, here's an ASCII art tie:
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:20 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Huffy Puffy: You are clearly using up all your success in the private rundle. Be less successful there and you should be safe in your A rundle. It’s just simple math.
See, it worked! You only had to slip 1 spot, on a tiebreaker, to save your spot in your regular rundle.
In celebration of our finish atop the private rundle, here's an ASCII art tie:
______
/( )\
\ \ / /
\/[]\/
/\
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
\ /
\/ (source)posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:20 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
See, it worked! You only had to slip 1 spot, on a tiebreaker, to save your spot in your regular rundle.
ಠ_ಠ
The second tiebreaker, no less. If we had been tied on TMP, it would have gone to the fourth tiebreaker (Wins) where I actually had the edge. I also note that you took our one head-to-head matchup this season 7(5)-6(5).
This is my third silver medal in the MeFi private Rundle in my 8 season career, with no wins. It's fine, no problem, I'm not competitive at all...
posted by Rock Steady at 7:07 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
ಠ_ಠ
The second tiebreaker, no less. If we had been tied on TMP, it would have gone to the fourth tiebreaker (Wins) where I actually had the edge. I also note that you took our one head-to-head matchup this season 7(5)-6(5).
This is my third silver medal in the MeFi private Rundle in my 8 season career, with no wins. It's fine, no problem, I'm not competitive at all...
posted by Rock Steady at 7:07 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Bad news: It looks like Mick Mulvaney is a LLama.
Good news: He's about to get relegated to E.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Good news: He's about to get relegated to E.
posted by Etrigan at 7:26 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Holy shit, that is amazing. What a crappy-ass jpeg-artifact-looking flag. I'm going to spend all day going through his Question History.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2019
posted by Rock Steady at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2019
To be clear, no shame in being an E-Rundler, and it looks like his strengths are about what you would expect from a finance/politics wonk, but yeah, rough to see that the Director of the OMB doesn't know what seigniorage is.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:52 AM on March 29, 2019
posted by Rock Steady at 8:52 AM on March 29, 2019
I finished first in my rookie league AND I got the seignorage question right, so I assume I am now White House Chief of Staff.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:28 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 12:28 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
Well, I had a slightly better season than he did, at least. 5-14-6.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:07 PM on March 29, 2019
posted by kevinbelt at 4:07 PM on March 29, 2019
Wow. My amazing start and precipitous fall are honestly so spectacular as to be worthy of a VH1 special, if they did them on poor bracket choices. They’d be all excited about my first round, then the music would shift a bit as they talked about the second round, and then the straight on “he dead” somber music would kick in.
All I have left to save me is Duke, and only I am responsible for ending up in these tragic circumstances.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:06 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
All I have left to save me is Duke, and only I am responsible for ending up in these tragic circumstances.
posted by Ghidorah at 6:06 PM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]
I . . . I might actually win that souvenir basketball this year. Holy butts!
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:12 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:12 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
I hope everyone is enjoying their rousing chorus of “my bracket is trash“ along with me. :-) Go Auburn! (I never thought I’d be saying that.)
posted by joycehealy at 4:25 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by joycehealy at 4:25 PM on March 31, 2019 [1 favorite]
Going into the Final Four, there are five possible scenarios in the men's bracket, with four potential winners.
If Texas Tech and Auburn win their semifinal games:
No one scores any additional points, and erinjwatson (the current leader) wins the competition regardless of what happens in the championship game.
If Michigan State and Auburn win:
Chainsoffreedom wins regardless of what happens in the championship game. Both chains and FlashGorski have MSU winning, and would both earn 160 points, but chains is ahead of Flash already. (Chains actually has MSU winning it all, but those points would just be gratuitous in this scenario.)
If Texas Tech and Virginia win:
DaKorsh wins regardless of what happens in the championship game. Once again, FlashGorski would earn 160 points as well, but they're so far behind in points already that they couldn't catch DaKorsh. They both have UVA winning it all, but again, those points are just bonus.
If Michigan State and Virginia win:
This is where we get interesting. DaKorsh and chainsoffreedom both earn 160 points, taking them to 930 and 960, respectively. FlashGorski, though, gets the full 320 and vaults into first with 1030. Since all three brackets' national champions are still alive, though, the national championship game still matters, leading to:
If Virginia beats Michigan State in the final:
FlashGorski and DaKorsh both earn 320 more points, but since FlashGorski had UVA's opponent correct as well, they prevail 1380-1250. This is the only scenario in which FlashGorski can win, but it's not that unlikely.
If Michigan State beats Virginia:
Chainsoffreedom earns the 320 and wins it all.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:24 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
If Texas Tech and Auburn win their semifinal games:
No one scores any additional points, and erinjwatson (the current leader) wins the competition regardless of what happens in the championship game.
If Michigan State and Auburn win:
Chainsoffreedom wins regardless of what happens in the championship game. Both chains and FlashGorski have MSU winning, and would both earn 160 points, but chains is ahead of Flash already. (Chains actually has MSU winning it all, but those points would just be gratuitous in this scenario.)
If Texas Tech and Virginia win:
DaKorsh wins regardless of what happens in the championship game. Once again, FlashGorski would earn 160 points as well, but they're so far behind in points already that they couldn't catch DaKorsh. They both have UVA winning it all, but again, those points are just bonus.
If Michigan State and Virginia win:
This is where we get interesting. DaKorsh and chainsoffreedom both earn 160 points, taking them to 930 and 960, respectively. FlashGorski, though, gets the full 320 and vaults into first with 1030. Since all three brackets' national champions are still alive, though, the national championship game still matters, leading to:
If Virginia beats Michigan State in the final:
FlashGorski and DaKorsh both earn 320 more points, but since FlashGorski had UVA's opponent correct as well, they prevail 1380-1250. This is the only scenario in which FlashGorski can win, but it's not that unlikely.
If Michigan State beats Virginia:
Chainsoffreedom earns the 320 and wins it all.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:24 PM on March 31, 2019 [3 favorites]
It occurred to me as I was falling asleep last night that the above may not be correct. I haven't yet had time to determine whether the original analysis was mistaken, or my semi-lucid reconsideration was. Just, uh, don't take that as gospel just yet.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:22 AM on April 1, 2019
posted by kevinbelt at 8:22 AM on April 1, 2019
So my methodology was flawed, but it only changes two things, and one of those is minor.
If TTU and Auburn both win, puckupdate will, in fact, score additional points. It won't be enough to take the lead from erinjwatson, though.
If TTU and UVA both win, carillons 4 will also get 160 points and pass DaKorsh. However, since carillons 4 has UVA losing in the championship game, that would mean that the championship game will matter in this scenario. So, if TTU and UVA both win, and UVA wins the championship, DaKorsh will be the champion. But if TTU and UVA both win, and TTU wins the championship, carillons 4 will be the champion. FlashGorski is still shut out.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:20 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
If TTU and Auburn both win, puckupdate will, in fact, score additional points. It won't be enough to take the lead from erinjwatson, though.
If TTU and UVA both win, carillons 4 will also get 160 points and pass DaKorsh. However, since carillons 4 has UVA losing in the championship game, that would mean that the championship game will matter in this scenario. So, if TTU and UVA both win, and UVA wins the championship, DaKorsh will be the champion. But if TTU and UVA both win, and TTU wins the championship, carillons 4 will be the champion. FlashGorski is still shut out.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:20 AM on April 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Man I was doing so well until Duke lost :( I guess I'm still in it though, thanks Kevin for the analysis!
posted by Carillon at 2:31 PM on April 2, 2019
posted by Carillon at 2:31 PM on April 2, 2019
On the Women's Tournament Challenge side of things, the POWER OF CHALK has led me to glory, and the 99th percentile overall.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:27 PM on April 6, 2019
posted by Huffy Puffy at 12:27 PM on April 6, 2019
Wow what a UVA game! Talk about a close one, I thought for sure at times UVA was finished. Let's go Texas tech, you and me DaKorsh.
posted by Carillon at 5:03 AM on April 7, 2019
posted by Carillon at 5:03 AM on April 7, 2019
Those were some games! Man! As sad as I am to be out of the running, this has truly been a great year for March Madness.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:13 AM on April 7, 2019
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:13 AM on April 7, 2019
It occurs to me that I never posted here to link my bracket to my MeFi user name? Congratulations to DaKorsh, and hoo boy do I not care that I came in second.
posted by thecaddy at 9:13 PM on April 8, 2019
posted by thecaddy at 9:13 PM on April 8, 2019
Congrats, DaKorsh! MeMail me your address for your prestigious traveling basketball trophy!
posted by torridly at 8:08 AM on April 9, 2019
posted by torridly at 8:08 AM on April 9, 2019
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posted by Chrysostom at 7:55 PM on March 18, 2019 [1 favorite]