Day 15 - Saturday August 11th

It all comes down to this...Day 16 is tomorrow and the London Games will come to a close.  Befitting of a strong field of Fantasy teams, the fight for Gold, Silver, and Bronze comes down to a few events on the last day of the games.  

The Mad Hatter jumps back into the lead with the strong come-from-behind win by the Brazilian Women's Volleyball team over the USA Women, the women's high-jump winner Ana Chicherova, and Tom Daley of the home team tacking on an important Diving bronze.

The Cheerios pulled in a very nice day with a Norway Women's Handball Gold, Men's Field Hockey Bronze, and Russia 4x400m relay silver.

And my team, Lucy in the Sky with Gold Medals, had a wonderful day, but ultimately fell short in too many places to make my team a contender.

Allyson Felix carried my team with her triple-gold effort, and made her be a valuable first-pick for me.  She and Usain Bolt earned the most track and field points.  My dominant Rhythmic Gymnast Yevgeniya Kanayeva pulled in the all-around Gold, dazzling with the ball, hoop, clubs, and ribbon, and Russia is clearly expected to bring in Gold tomorrow in the team final.  However, my Brazilians failed me again by losing to Mexico in the Men's Soccer Final.  Also, I picked a Chinese diver and he lost - to an American and a Brit.  Of course I pick basically the only Chinese diver to not medal.

The Fantasy Games comes down to this - the final day, and the final tally of possible points remaining:

Ultimately, the Gold Medal comes down to two teams - Mad Hatter and Team Mark.  The ultimate contest is the Men's Water Polo final between Mad Hatter's Croatia and Team Mark's Italy.  If Croatia wins, the Gold goes to Mad Hatter.  If Italy pulls the upset, then it gets interesting...

Team Mark would not be assured the Gold, as he also is depending on his Brazilian Men's Volleyball squad, who hopes to follow in the footsteps of the ladies.  If Brazil wins then Mark assures the Silver, and the Gold in the aforementioned scenario.  If Brazil loses, then it becomes more interesting for the medal stand!

Brazil would lose to Team Russia of The Tony Danzas.  A Russian victory could propel The Danzas into the Silver medal.  However, the team is also very dependant on the Argentinian Men's Basketball team, who is fighting in the Bronze medal game against Russia.  Let's hope the Danzas don't get too confused cheering for the wrong Russian team.  If Russia wins Basketball Bronze, then The Tony Danzas could fall off the medal stand with The Cheerios sneaking in.

The Cheerios need Spain to beat USA for the Basketball gold, so we're just going to stop with scenarios here because the Durantula and King James won't let that happen.

My best finish will be 5th place.  Such potential unrealized.

See you guys Sunday night for the medal ceremony!

Day 14 - Friday August 10th

The race for the podium is getting tighter and tighter, and, for the first time since Day 6, we have a new outright leader - The Tony Danzas dance their way to the top like a Rocket Man on the heels of drafting both Carmelita Jeter and Shelly-Ann Frayser-Pryce who both medaled in the 4x100m relay.  

So now comes the final two days of the Olympic Games.  With many team medals about to be handed out and quite a few other events still to be settled, it should be a fantastic finish.  Which team will find Saturday Night Alright for Fighting?  Which team will see their hopes blow out like a Candle in the Wind?  I am definitely imploring my team to not Let the Sun Go Down on Me.  Otherwise I will share with the 8 teams that will find out Why They Call it the Blues.

Here is the list of MAX possible points remaining for each team:

 
I thought it would be fun for us all to know exactly who to cheer for or root against, so here is a list of athletes/teams on each squad that still have possible points remaining.  Now you all know who will make you Feel the Love Tonight.

My team better step it up, because I think it's going to be a long, long time until the next Olympics...

Days 12 and 13 - August 8th/9th

Again, sorry for the delay, but here are the standings after Day 12:

And now here are the standings after Day 13:

There weren't many points handed out after yesterday, but many were delivered today!  
The big movers and shakers include:
The Cheerios, with USA Women Soccer, Misty May and Kerri Walsh Beach Volleyball, and Brittany Reese claiming Gold Medals for a nice 25 point boost.

Lucy in the Sky with Gold Medals (Me!) had a nice pickup with the USA Women winning the Water Polo gold, and Emanual/Alison managing the silver in Beach Volleyball (they had the gold in hand! bums!).

Now, here is the real meat of what you all want to know - what's left and how is my team going to do?  Well I put together a rough list of Max Possible Points remaining for each team, so here's a nice chart with the potential for each team remaining:

Now, realize this factors in MAX possible for each team, so teams with basketball teams that have not been eliminated could have a max of 10 points, but obviously that's not a good estimate unless a miracle occurs.  So what's important to take away from this is that it's not all over.  For example, if I max out and Mad Hatter maxes out, then I only lose by 7 points!  (Kitajima you still suck). 

If you factor points in, then the only teams mathematically eliminated out of medal contention at this point are: Fish and Chips of Gold and The Daft Boffin.

Three more days - I can hardly believe it is almost over!  I'm going to be sad it's gone, but I will be happier if I can land on the podium!

Good luck all!

 

Delay in Points

Hey guys,

I had to fly in late tonight and we don't have the points updated, yet, but we'll post them tomorrow.

In the meantime, this is required viewing:

Makayla is Not Impressed

Day 11, Tuesday August 7th

Gymnastics...the drama, the pageantry, the crazy judges, and for Team Mark, the clutch draft picks.

Aly Raisman delivered.  While Gabby, Jordyn, and MaKayla continue to grab the headlines and the nauseating in your face "Make this place your home" promos (and poor Kyla Ross gets to just hang around), Aly stepped up and won Gold in the floor exercise and Bronze on the balance beam.  That makes her the leading point getter for all gymnasts drafted at 11 points.  Granted, this also ties the totals for Zou Kai, of Closet Russian Womens BBall Fan (Wild Card), and Kohei Uchimura of Union Jim, who was the Men's All-Around Champion.

Aly vaulted (pun enforced) Team Mark into 2nd place, along with the efforts of Ivan Ukohv in the High Jump and Alistair Brownlee taking the Triathlon Gold.  However, it is tight at the top.  Caterina Ponor managed a gymnastics silver for Mad Hatter to keep her in first, but many teams are knocking on the door.

And everyone check their email for details on our closing ceremonies for Sunday, graciously hosted by Trent and Kara!

Day 10: Monday August 6th

Not many points given out today, but the most went to Closet Russian Women's BBall Fan, who surged ahead to claim a share of the lead!

I think Mad Hatter is shaking in her fascinator now.  

The focus will quickly be turning to the team events and who even has a chance for points left.  As most team events are either in the elimination rounds or about to begin, it will be interesting to see who hits the jackpot and who goes home empty.

The biggest match of the day was in Women's Football with the USA vs. Canada.  This game was just epic.  The USA scored with literally 37 seconds left in stoppage time of the second overtime period to secure the victory and the berth in the Gold Medal Match vs. Japan.  They are ensured a medal, and Canada is sent to the Bronze medal match.  Find highlights if you haven't seen them already - one of the best football games I've seen.

All I can say now is, GO BRAZIL - I need victories in Basketball, Football, and Beach Volleyball!!!

Day 9, Sunday August 5th

We're entering the home stretch - 161 of 302 total events have been determined.  What that means is that many of the medals have been awarded, but plenty are still to come.  It also means that many of the sports are over, so we will be able to soon hone in on who has a chance to win the Fantasy Olympics, and who will be left behind.

There wasn't a lot of change today, but the key medals were obviously in Tennis and Sprinting. 

In Tennis, Serena took the singles Gold and doubles Gold over the weekend with her sister, Venus.  The Bryan brothers took the men's doubles gold, and Mike Bryan picked up a mixed doubles Bronze.  Andy Murray finally won something at Wimbledon twice over besting The Fed and claiming the mixed doubles Silver.

Usain Bolt carried the night in repeating in the 100m dash.  Bolt,  runner-up Yohan Blake, and 3rd place Justin Gatlin were all drafted, so many points were handed out.  Sonya Richards-Ross won the 400m giving Team Mark a Gold.


The following sports have concluded activities:
Swimming
Archery
Rowing
Fencing
Tennis
Badminton

Still plenty left, but that's a lot off the board.

Who thinks they have the best chance to win the overall title?

Day 8 - Super Saturday July 8th

They call it Super Saturday - midway through the games with tons of medals dropping.  For one team, it was more than super.

The Tony Danzas accumulated 38 points on Saturday alone, jumping from 15 points and 10th place to 53 points and 2nd place all on today.  Just ridiculous.  Matt Grevers is one of the stealth picks of the games, gaining another Gold and 13 points total for swimming. The Danzas kept piling on gold after gold, racking in points in swimming, sprinting, distance running, heptathlon (field), fencing, and tennis.  Silvers were claimed in rowing and wildcard sprinting.  The laptop aid in the draft appears to be paying off.  It only takes one day to make a swing.  I'm still waiting on my day.  I hope it happens before the next Olympics in Rio.

Swimming is OVER.  (Except for the crazy open water swims, but for us-it's over)
Michael Phelps carries the swimming points total, but I thought it would be interesting to see what could have been if we knew more and Sports Illustrated tried a little harder.  Here's a big list with some of the top Undrafted talent mixed in:

Oh what could have been...

Team Mad Hatter maintains the lead, but one big blow to her team occurred today when LaShawn Merritt pulled out of the 400m prelim heats with a hurt hamstring.  The defending gold medalist is out of the Olympics, and Team Mad Hatter goes from a potential 10 points to 0 for Sprinting.  Will it matter?  We'll find out! She did get 10 points for stinkin' Badminton so it may not matter.


Here's to an exciting week two of the games!

Day 7, Friday August 3rd

Day 7 has wrapped up, and swimming is almost wrapped up (thank goodness!).  Lots of medals delivered today, but the bottom of the standings stays pretty stagnant (me).

Clearly, Michael Phelps has helped the Mad Hatter claim the top spot a week after the Opening Ceremonies.  With 21 points from one athlete, that's more than 3 other teams have total.  It's also clear that drafting Phelps-Lochte-Franklin 1-2-3 was the correct move, even if they have seemingly been over-hyped.  Phelps has 21, Lochte 17, and Franklin 16 points.  However, it's also clear that they aren't everything, as Team Mark is in 8th and The Cheerios in 4th with the other top scorers.  There are still plenty of points to be had!  The first track and field points were awarded to The Dream Team with the Gold Medal in the 10000m to Dibaba of Ethiopia.  I think The Dream Team had a good strategy and stands to do well over the next week of competition.  Watch out for his team moving up the leaderboard.  Union Jim captured the Bronze with Cheruyiot from Kenya.  He had a big night as well, moving up to second place behind strong performances from the Germany Quad Sculls rowing group taking the Gold and Reese Hoffa from the USA taking the Bronze in the Shot Put. 

One big upset affecting future points is the big loss for Fish and Chips of Gold, who will receive no points for Volleyball as the top team of Todd "The Professor" Rogers and Phil Dalhausser lost in the first round of the beach volleyball medal tournament.  Sharing her pain is Faster, Higher, Stronger with the Spanish Men's Football team not even advancing out of their group after winning the Euros a month ago and the most recent World Cup.  An embarrassing loss for the Spanish side, but a painful one for Faster, Higher, Stronger, who got a bit weaker.

On a completely different note, Dong Dong won the trampoline competition tonight.  Yes, that's his name.

This weekend should be fun.

Day 6, Thursday August 2nd

Today provided a flurry of medals (for most teams - myself and The Tony Danzas are playing the waiting game).



First, I want to issue an apology to Kristin J, as I had misread her team name as "The Daft Bottin," which makes no sense.  Of course, the correct name is "The Daft Boffin," which provides plenty of appropriate humour and British relevance.  Go hit up Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, or use your favourite search engine to seek out further definition, and kudos to Kristin J on a clever name!

Here is the leaderboard for today (I sorted to make it easier to see that my team is terrible!):

For those who like the old leaderboard, here's the teams in draft order:

Big points today dropped in from the Rowing competition.  With the rowing squads counting for team points, teams can quickly move up the leaderboard.  The Cheerios were smart to grab the dominant USA Women Eights team who secured a Gold and a 10 point boost.  The potential for points even had Team Mark excitedly calling me trying to piece together if it was his Great Britain Fours team that won a silver today (Conclusion: No, that event is still to come, today was "Lightweight" Fours men where Faster, Higher, Stronger won a Bronze).

Other noteworthy points from the day are obviously the big win by Gabby Douglas taking the Gold Gymnastics All-Around.  The Daft Boffin did miss out on Jordyn Weiber participating in and possibly winning this event, but she intelligently selected Victoria Komova of Russia as a wild card selection who nearly stole the Gold away from Gabby, but cried herself to a Silver.  That's right Russia, 2 is not a winner and 3, nobody remembers.  Too bad you couldn't win one for the motherland.

In swimming, there were some more races, and more medals, and more continuous coverage of the Phelps/Lochte/Franklin NBC lovefest.  I mean really, NBC, we get it - they're world class athletes, but how many times to you have to ask Phelps if he's "back," or "lost it."  And how many times do you have to ask Lochte how it feels to swim against Phelps, and how many times do we need to be reminded that Missy Franklin is only 17, and from Colorado where no one apparently can swim and she's just so darn happy all the time.  How about covering all the people that are BEATING these superstars and probably have interesting stories about them! 

Well, track and field is starting tomorrow so that should be refreshing.  Also, I'm not bitter that my swimmer sucked.

Badminton-gate expelled 8 athletes from the games, however the lone Badminton selection was by Mad Hatter with Zhao Yunlei of China, who was not declared part of the expulsions and is an even stronger Gold medal favorite now.  It would have been interesting if we had declared Badminton a sport category in the draft!  We may have to add a rule for next time that you would lose points for throwing matches.


Onto Day 7...patiently waiting on some points.

Day 5, Wednesday August 1st

The medals keep flowing on Day 5, just too few on my team.

Can I rant for a minute about Kosuke Kitajima?  What a bum.  Double gold medal favorite to double 4th place.  Ugh.  My swimming total is 0.  I should have picked basically ANYONE on the US team and would have gotten points.  Big lesson for Rio in 2016...

Overall it's a pretty tight leaderboard.  Lots of swimming points keep accumulating for everyone but me.  Fish and Chips of Gold continues a stellar, balanced performance with multiple medals across multiple disciplines.  The Dream Team holds true to the moniker by earning the first team gold medal with his Germany Eights Sculls Rowing win.  

My shining star - Ding Ning, taking the Silver in Table Tennis.  What a great name.

After 5 planes in 2 days, I'm tired so not much other update for now, but things should be very interesting tomorrow night with the girls gymnastics showdown.  

Day 4 - Tuesday July 31st

Hi everyone, it's Kristin again today but Ryan will return to the blog tomorrow!

Team Mark and Team Mad Hatter raked in lots of points today in swimming and gymnastics. Although Phelps was devastated to not have defended his title in his signature event, the 200 butterfly, the silver medal still meant 3 crucial points for Mad Hatter. The USA men's win in the 4 x 200 freestyle relay meant points for both Phelps and Team Mark's Ryan Lochte. In that same relay, China earned the bronze and one point for The Dream Team. Some swimmers that those of us on the bottom of the leader board are wishing we had picked up are Allison Schmitt of the USA who has earned a medal of every color and Ye Shiwen, a Chinese woman with two golds but also some doping accusations.

Moving on to other sports, the Fab Five were indeed fabulous in the women's gymnastics team final earning the gold for Mark, Alisha, and both Kristins. Diving medals in the women's synchronized platform were also earned by The Dream Team, The Cheerios, and The Tony Danzas.

In spite of earning no points today, Closet Russian Womens Basketball Fan still has a lead of 4 points over second place Team Mark, but tied for third, Fish and Chips of Gold and Mad Hatter are just 1 point behind.

I hope all of you are enjoying watching the games as much as Ryan and I are! We would probably enjoy it just a little bit more if we were not ranked last and close to it.... but the DeBoards are just counting on the Russians to bolster our Olympic scores- Ryan in his rhythmic gymnast and I in synchronized swimming! Good luck tomorrow everyone, it's already morning in London!

Day 3, Monday July 30th

Another day of Olympic competition has come to a close.  Ryan is getting ready for a work trip, so this is Kristin updating.  I apologize in advance if my post is not as witty and entertaining as his!

The biggest change to our fantasy standings today was Closet Russian Woman's Basketball Fan (Jonathan) storming to a huge lead.  CRWBF earned medals in swimming, shooting, and two gold medals for the Chinese men's gymnastics team. 

Speaking of gymnastics, there was quite a scandal in the men's team competition that had a huge effect on our leader board.  The competition was coming to a close, and a Japanese gymnast was completing his last event- the pommel horse.  On his dismount, he wobbled quite a bit and received a very low score.  After that performance, it was declared that the Chinese won the gold, Great Britain surprised everyone with a silver, and Ukraine earned the bronze.    Just as we were enjoying the Olympic moment of the home crowd cheering, the Japanese protested, flashed some cash (literally), and the score was changed, catapulting the Japanese into second place.   From this one change, Union Jim (Jimmy) went from zero to six points because he has not one, but TWO, Japanese gymnasts!

Team Mark joined the Mad Hatter in struggling in the swimming department when Ryan Lochte was defeated once again by a Frenchman and failed to medal in the 200 freestyle.  Missy Franklin earned The Cheerio's (Alisha) first gold of these games in the 100 backstroke.

I am reminded how quickly things can change in these games because I have plummeted from first to tied for tenth in two days!  Oh well, there are still a lot of medals to be won!

Day 2 - Sunday July 29th

Day 2 of the Games wrapped up with many events getting under way and heading closer toward delivering medals.  Swimming is the biggest juggernaut currently clipping along and delivering nightly medal swings.


Here are your standings after Day 2:

Fish and Chips of Gold took a huge step forward today by featuring 4 medal winners - Gold in diving, Vollmer's World Record Gold in the 100m Butterfly, an Archery team silver medal to China, and the first Wild Card points awarded in these games to Rebecca Addlington of Great Britain in the 400m Freestyle.  NBC ran a feature story on her carrying the hopes of her country on this race after securing Gold in Beijing.  However, she ended up with the Bronze.  I'm sure the British people hold fast to Coach Reilly's philosophy from The Mighty Ducks when he told his Hawks team "It's not worth winning, if you can't win big," and will duly shun her for failure.  Oh well, Fish and Chips still got a point.

Another interesting swimming note is that The Tony Danzas are awarded 3 points for Matt Grevers in relation to the silver medal for the 4x100m Freestyle relay.  Even though Grevers did not swim the final, he still swam in the preliminary heats and is awarded a medal.  Therefore, The Tony Danzas poached a quality amount of points while watching it all happen.





The other big story of the day with huge ramifications for the Fantasy teams was the high drama around the USA Women's Gymnastics team.  The big winner of the night is Team Mark, while not securing any medals in gymnastics, Aly Raisman's rise to the top of the US team and subsequent eligibility for the All-Around finals secures her an additional medal opportunity that was not previously projected.  I believe she now has potential for 20 points (Team, All-Around, Floor, and Balance Beam).  Pretty huge for being the 3rd US gymnast off the board.  Team Faster, Higher, Stronger stays secure with Gabby Douglas and another potential 20 points, while Team Daft Bottin suffers the huge setback along with the emotional Jordyn Weiber, who goes from All-Around Gold Medal favorite to not even in the competition.  Now her potential points drop to only 10.  Very interesting to see how those picks have fallen out.  I'm beginning to think that The Dream Team took the right approach in picking the USA Men's and Women's basketball teams with his first two picks - there are very few "sure things" in the Olympics. 

One other note - it was discovered today that Chinese Women's Archer Fang Yuting was inadvertently listed twice on the projections, twice on the labels, and thus was drafted twice by Teams Fish and Chips of Gold and Lucy in the Sky with Gold Medals.  Each side will be rewarded the points for the team Silver as there's not much we can do about it now.  Next time I'll be sure to copy Michael Phelps a few times instead.

The drama continues on day 3...

Day 1 - Saturday July 28

Day 1 of the Games has come to a close, and already there are exciting upsets and surprises!


None bigger than the great equalizer...Michael Phelps doesn't even medal!  Ryan Lochte (and Team Mark) 1, Michael Phelps (and Team Mad Hatter) 0.

Here are your standings after Day 1:

For reference here so that you know which team is representing each person:
Mad Hatter - Kara
Team Mark - Mark (Seriously?)
The Cheerios - Alisha
Closet Russian Women's BBall Fan - Jonathan
The Dream Team - Trent
The Daft Bottin - Kristin J
Faster, Higher, Stronger - Kristin D
Fish and Chips of Gold - Katie
The Tony Danzas - Brad
Lucy in the Sky with Gold Medals - Ryan
Union Jim - Jimmy

The Dream Team and Faster, Higher, Stronger have taken the lead.  TDT was bolstered by the first ever Chinese gold medal swimmer in Sun Yang.  The clear lead was in grasp, however the American archers soundly defeated the South Koreans in the semi-finals, relegating the gold medal favorites to the Bronze medal.  This defeat had ramifications for multiple teams, as all three Korean archers were chosen in the draft. 

However, the further result from this defeat helped out Faster, Higher, Stronger (Italian Archer) and The Daft Bottin (American Archer).  FHS took the Super Mario Bros. approach and rode the Italians to victory today with the aforementioned archer and taking the Fencing bronze medal.  The Italians swept the podium in fencing, so FHS clearly followed the trail of pasta nicely.

The other notable result of the day was the narrow escape by the USA Women's Basketball team, with The Dream Team breathing a sigh of relief after the team was able to pull away from Croatia in the 4th quarter.  The Dream Team is banking heavily on both the Men's and Women's USA Basketball teams taking gold, so I think he will sleep better with the customary 40 point blowouts that are bound to follow.

Men's gymnastics will be one to watch (or avoid watching - the men's floor exercise is just silly), as favorites from China and Japan have faltered or been replaced from injury.  No one drafted the injured gymnast, but it could hurt China's team gold chances.

The medals will start accumulating quickly in the coming days.  Stay tuned for what is sure to be a rapidly changing leaderboard!  If you want to see the entire scoresheet, I'm going to post the update to the following link on google docs:  
2012 Fantasy Olympics Scoresheet

On another note, this tape-delay is just awful.  Lots of funny stuff on twitter at #nbcfail.  It's ridiculous when NBC delays the Phelps/Lochte race, but makes it the lead story on the NBC Nightly News.  

Teams!

2012 Summer Fantasy Olympics Rules

1. Each team will have 16 athletes and/or teams and 1 tiebreaker country. 

2. Draft order will be determined by a random draw.  Draft order will reverse each round.  Ex. Round 1 will go in order from 1-11, round 2 from 11-1, round 3 from 1-11, etc.  Each player gets one pick per round for 17 rounds.

"3. Each player will select a total of 16 athletes that will fill the following roster spots on your team:

One athlete or team per sport (14) and two wild cards from any sport.  Everyone must also choose a country to serve as a tiebreaker."

4. All remaining athletes will become free agents.  However, all teams will lock on 28-Jul-2012 at the beginning of the first event.  Trades may be made between teams, but only on the night of the draft.  No changes can be made to the rosters after these first events begin. A player may draft a tiebreaker country in any round, but remember that the medals won by that country will only come into play in the event of a tie.

5. The winner will be the player with the most points at the end of the 2012 Summer Games.  Points will be assigned as follows: INDIVIDUAL EVENTS: 5 points for a gold medal, 3 points for a silver medal, and 1 point for a bronze medal. TEAM EVENTS: 10 points for a gold medal, 5 points for a silver medal, and 3 point for a bronze medal.  Each player's final score will be based on an aggregate score from his or her team members.

6. If an athlete competes in both team and individual events (for example, a swimmer), that athlete can be selected as an individual, earning medals for both the individual and team events.  The team cannot be selected as a unit.  If, however, medals in an event are only awarded on a team-by-team basis (for example, basketball), only the team can be selected.

7. Medal counts will be updated in the official spreadsheet by the Commissioner or the Commissioneress on a more or less nightly basis and posted to the blog http://fantasyolympicgames.blogspot.com

8. Each player will select one country whose total medal count will be used to determine a winner, in the event of a tie among two or more players' aggregate scores. If the total medal count fails to break the tie, then the gold count, silver count, and finally the bronze count, will be used.

9. In the event that an athlete on your team is caught doping at any point during the games, you will be deducted 5 points.

10. In the event that an athlete on your team is kicked out because of a stupid facebook or twitter post at any point during the games, you will be deducted 5 points.

11.  If an athlete is stripped of a medal you will lose the points for that medal.

The 2012 Summer Olympics are coming soon!

July 27th - The opening ceremonies will occur not only for the Thirtieth Olympiad, but the Fantasy Olympics!

Stay tuned for updates, and plan to attend our own "Opening Ceremonies" to draft your teams!

I'm already starting to scout my Badminton team...