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A predictor tournament sounds cool. Go USA, and have fun, North Korea. Have so much fun.

Not placing bets on winners just now, though. This looks like it could be anyone's tournament, but knowing Brazil...

This post has been edited by Del S on 4th December 2009 18:59

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"Only the dead have seen the end of their quotes being misattributed to Plato."
-George Santayana

"The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here..."
-Abraham Lincoln, prior to the discovery of Irony.

Nice group. Only real threat is Paraguay.

The groups look interesting to me. There should be quite a few interesting matches, to say the least.

A predictor tournament would be a lot of fun, but like Del, I think there should be a bit more leeway on picking overall tournament winners than we had in the Euro-edition. Regardless, I'd be in for it.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Hey if Spain are to be controversially knocked out in the quarter-finals then who better to do it than Portugal. I would never say that the Ivory Coast are a legitimate challenger for their group, despite a lot of the chatter that's floating around. Portugal have a great attacking team this year and could be one of the major surprises.

The U.S. are a bit unpredictable, but, I mean really, they're against Slovenia and Algeria, if they don't progress I would be shocked. Presumably England have that group wrapped up. They've only a few minor injures, many players in the form of their life and a high goal tally. I have two Slovenian friends, a few Americans, and many English, so it'll be good times in the pub during their games.

I think Group B (Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece) will be the most closely fought over: Argentina have been pretty poor in the qualifiers; S.K. had a very good run in their home world cup, even if they had to cheat more than Italy in order to win*; I haven't seen Nigeria but I remember a friend saying they were strong in their qualifiers; and, of course, Greece are brilliant at beating big teams in unlikely circumstances. I don't think I could pick a team to win the group, although I'm fairly sure it won't be Nigeria.

Does anyone know if Robin van Persie will be fit for Holland or will he still be injured?

As for how to run the predictor league, I say just run it like the Euro, that worked pretty well. I only made one game but it was still fun!

*Did anyone think they didn't have it coming?

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I just started development of a totally-web-based World Cup predictor league yesterday, special for CoN.

That said, if any of you guys who were in the Euro league have any thoughts on how to improve it (Jav, you mentioned the winner prediction?) let me know ASAP as I'm working on it in my downtime right now.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 20th January 2010 14:34)

I just started development of a totally-web-based World Cup predictor league yesterday, special for CoN.

How's that coming on?

I've linked the game dates and times at the bottom. England v US on the second day should be good. I hope Rooney is over his injury and back to form by then.

I found out that van Persie will probably be back for Arsenal before the end of the season and is very likely to be in the World Cup for the Netherlands. I don't know what kind of form he'll be in but he'll be sure to make an impact. It's not like the Dutch can rely on Dirk Kuyt after this season, right?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8395228.stm


This post has been edited by sweetdude on 3rd April 2010 17:29

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

Quote (sweetdude @ 3rd April 2010 12:24)

How's that coming on?

When I last worked on it, I think the flow for the players was just about ready. You can pick a winner, pick and edit individual matches, and see matches that have been fully scored. You can't pick multiple matches simultaneously yet, not sure if I'll get to that. Once I get into my new home and get my office set up, I need to write the stuff that will let me input match results and score all the players against them. Really, I should have it ready for beta in a few weeks if all goes well with my move and I don't get so crushed with office work that I start to hate web development.

And be nice to Dirk Kuyt. He might not pile on the goals, but he's been one of Liverpool's most consistent this year. I think if Benitez gets to keep his job, he might find himself well served to put Kuyt up top with Torres, with a midfield of Babel, Gerrard, Mascherano, and Maxi. It would help both Kuyt and Torres both. Domestic competition aside, though, yeah - Holland needs van Persie.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 4th April 2010 03:16)

And be nice to Dirk Kuyt. He might not pile on the goals, but he's been one of Liverpool's most consistent this year. I think if Benitez gets to keep his job, he might find himself well served to put Kuyt up top with Torres, with a midfield of Babel, Gerrard, Mascherano, and Maxi. It would help both Kuyt and Torres both. Domestic competition aside, though, yeah - Holland needs van Persie.

It's like Liverpool have a good 15 players but can't get a decent 11 out there without Alonso. Kuyt is good in a team but he's not got the same individual talent he was showing last season. To be fair to him, he gives every game his full effort, but apparently that isn't enough. The only players worth anything on the Liverpool team are Reina who's been outstanding and kept Liverpool barely in the running for 4th and Torres when he isn't injured. If Rafa keeps his job and Liverpool finish behind Villa he's probably going to lose both those players, but you never know. If I was fielding a Liverpool team I'd go Torres and Babel in attack with Maxi, Aquilani, Gerrard and Mascherano in the midfield. Kuyt would be an ideal impact sub for Babel, Gerrard or Mascherano if the reds are about to lose or draw yet ANOTHER game.

The Netherlands are a team more suited to passing and movement, and while Kuyt's positioning is quite good, he is better scoring from the air, which the Dutch haven't been doing. They can't rely on him to replace van Persie, they'd be better putting Babel in attack. If there's anywhere for Kuyt it would be the bench for the last 30 or 20 minutes or midfield. Don't get me wrong though, he's got a great playing ethic and he seems to be a nice bloke, but he'd be better suited playing in a persistent and slow attacking team like Germany or England than the pacey and quick-passing Dutch.

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Scepticism, that dry rot of the intellect, had not left one entire idea in his mind.

Me on the Starcraft.

I'm late posting this, but I remember the day after the draw the Sun ran a cover that read:

England
Algeria
Slovenia
Yanks

For me there is not a more tantalizing prospect for the WC than the US defeating England in the group stage. And I'm willing to bet that we'll pull it off--when we have our WC CoNtest, I promise to forecast a US victory.

EDIT: By the way, Aleksander Hemon at The New Republic will be covering the WC for the magazine. I like him because I agree with his every thought on footie. His latest writeup is on Barca and Messi. Shame that Barca lost to Inter; I'm sure Barca will win at Camp Nou, but it all depends on how much they win by...

This post has been edited by The_Pink_Nu1 on 21st April 2010 13:12

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (The_Pink_Nu1 @ 21st April 2010 08:01)

I'm late posting this, but I remember the day after the draw the Sun ran a cover that read:

England
Algeria
Slovenia
Yanks

Heh, the Sun are jerks. To think that the US can't muster at least a point out of England is folly.

Since I'm posting here, I should point out that even as stacked as Spain is, the surgery on (my secret lover) Fernando Torres is making the bet I put on La Furia Roja when I was in Vegas a couple months back look a bit sketchy. :\

With regards to the predictor league, I believe I have most of the client-facing code written now. I spent a lot of yesterday working on the admin tools I need to do scoring, and once those are done I'll be reaching out to some beta testers to make some predictions so we can run a faux league and I can test all the scoring logic.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?