Day 15: The Eve of the Closing...but a New Leader...

We approach the end...and get a new leader at the top...

Luge Yourself is now the biggest Curling fan!

To the rundown...

Alpine Skiing - A new team event saw a lot of back-ups participating and lacked the star power.  Only Michael Matt of Austria and Soohorang Success was on the team that earned the silver.  No one elite wanted to participate in the slalom head to head race event.

Cross-Country - 50km mass start - no points earned

Curling - USA USA USA USA USA - Mr. T gave them a pep talk and the US men's team pitied the fools that doubted them.  After a miraculous run to get to the gold medal game, they delivered and beat the elite Swedish team.  Luge Yourself gets Gold, Russian Ministry of Sport gets Silver.
Japan won the women's Bronze - no points to anyone

Hockey - Canada won the Bronze! Obviously not the medal they hope for, but salvaging some points for Incheon Closer. After their semi-final loss to Germany, the German foreign office sent out a message to Germans in Canada to be nice to the Canadians, because think about how you would feel if Canada beat Germany in soccer.

Snowboarding - Ester Ledecka gets an EXPECTED Gold in the parallel giant slalom for Lindsey Vonn-miting after earning the skiing Super G gold earlier.  She had borrowed someones skis to compete, but no borrowing of equipment in her specialty here.  Nevin Galmarini got a Gold for Suk-hee year in the Men's Parallel Giant Slalom event.

Long Track - The men's and women's Mass Start events were a new event this year, and featured some very bizarre rules that I still don't understand.  Also they had Dale Earnhardt Jr try to describe how this is like NASCAR so I was even more lost.  The skaters seemed to know what they were doing, so in the men's race, Suk-hee year won a gold from Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea and Lindsey Vonn-miting got a Bronze from Koen Verweij.

IT ALLLLL COMES DOOOOOWN TO THIS

Day 14: One Weekend to Decide it all

Day 14 has wrapped up - two to go and the standings are tight:

The top 5 teams are only separated by 11 points - the remaining team are still in striking distance with big team points still in play.

Long Track - Kjeld Nuis of Russian Ministry of Sport barely edged out Havard Lorentzen of Team Mark to win gold.

Figure Skating - The marquee event crowned the princess of the games - the Ladies free skate concluded as expected with Russians closing it out to compete for gold.  Unexpectedly the results were reversed - Alina Zagitova of Suk-hee year took the Gold, with Evegina Medvedeva of Luge Yourself narrowly getting silver.  Katelyn Osmond of Canada was the best of the rest and got the bronze for Run DMZ.

Curling - After getting wiped all over the ice by top seed Sweden, Switzerland men's curling team bounced back to shock Canada and grab the Bronze medal.  Incheon Closer will covet any points out of that shocking result.  Run DMZ shockingly gets 0 points for finishing off the podium with Canada being the favorites entering the competition.
Note:  The OAR mixed doubles team had their bronze medal STRIPPED for doping (seriously....in curling).  Norway then claims the Bronze, but this doesn't affect our standings as neither team was chosen.

Biathlon - The men's 7.5km relay had Sweden stealing the Gold (no selections), Norway getting Silver (Johannes Thingnes Bo, Soohorang Success; Tarjei Bo and Emil Hegle Svendsen, both of Run DMZ), and Germany took bronze, led by Arnd Pfeiffer (Incheon Closer)

NOW, we head into the final 2 days of the games - sports are wrapping up but there are some big fish out there - here's what to watch for:
MEDAL EVENTS TOMORROW:

• Alpine Skiing
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Curling (USA USA USA - Luge Yourself is chanting all night as they try to beat out Sweden of Russian Ministry of Sport) (Team Mark has Team GB women going for Bronze)
• Hockey (Incheon Closer has Canada trying to salvage the Bronze after a disappointing defeat to Germany)
• Snowboard
• Long Track Speed Skating

MEDAL EVENTS SUNDAY:

• Bobsled (Incheon Closer's Friedrich 4-man team is in the lead after the first day of runs, Walther of Red White and Luge and Lochner of Team Mark are all in the mix)
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Curling (Red White and Luge have the Swedish women's team going for gold against the home team South Korea)
• Hockey (Seoul Searching is going for Gold with OAR facing the upstart Germany)

Many of the sports have concluded - let's take a look at the best picks and net gains in each of these:

Biathlon - only 3 athletes posted net gains on the projected point totals.  Johannes Thingnes Bo being the biggest loser, but hard to be sad about the 20 points earned. Martin Fourcade was the best overall pick with 30 points earned and only 5 points under projected

Figure Skating - Virtue/Moir Ice Dancing Twizzled to the top.  Nathan Chen was a massive disappointment.

Freestyle Skiing - This was ROUGH - basically so many events we all got to pick favorites, but only 5 of us come away with any points:

Nordic Combined - Jan Schmid sucked it up and Eric Frenzel threw it down big

Short Track Speed Skating - South Korea massive disappointment

Skeleton - not many events so not lots of points, especially with the upsets:

Ski Jumping - Forfang sunk his teeth into these hills

The pictures were hard to get to post at a better readable resolution, so check out the spreadsheet on the google drive link if you want to analyze any sport and your teams.

Day 13: Standings Shakeup

Day 13 - What's your lucky number?  Apparently most are better than mine.

Alpine Skiing - Mikaela Shiffrin delivered a silver in the Super Combined for Run DMZ.  Soohorang Success grabbed a bronze with Michael Matt in the slalom.  Marcel Hirscher, the heavy favorite, missed a gate and was out.  Sadness for Team Mark.  Lindsey Vonn missed a gate as well and went from first to worst.  Double sadness for Team Mark.

Biathlon - The women's 4x6km relay saw Darya Domracheva carry Belarus to Gold, leading her to her second medal of the games and matching her husband, the legendary Norwegian Ole Einar Bjorndalen.  Luge Yourself is glad to be connected to legends. 

Freestyle Skiing - Suk-hee year made a smart pick with taking David Wise, who threw down a mega run in the ski halfpipe on his last try to earn the Gold for the USA.

Hockey - YOU KNOW IT USA USA USA USA USA USA USA
Red White and Luge is appropriately flying the golden flag today.  Lindsey Vonn-miting has to eat a bowl of Freedom Flakes as Canada takes silver.  In the medal ceremony a Canadian player ripped the silver medal off her neck as soon as they put it on.  Sucks for you, Canada.

Speaking of US beating Canada the US CURLING TEAM SWEPT OUT CANADA TO MOVE TO THE GOLD MEDAL MATCH.  Go enjoy some maple syrup on those pancakes boys.

Nordic Combined featured the team event and rolled out all kinds of points -
Germany took the Gold - Rydzdek (Luge Yourself), Frenzel (Red White and Luge), Geiger (Soohorang Success)
Norway took the Silver - Graabak (Seoul Searching), Andersen (Team Mark), Riiber (Suk-hee Year), Schmid (Incheon Closer)
Austria took Bronze - Klapfer (Lindsey Vonn-miting)
Russian Ministry of Sport (Japan) and Run DMZ (Finland) are the only teams to not receive any points

Snowboarding - Jamie Anderson of the USA secured a silver in Big Air for Incheon Closer - the only double medal winner in snowboarding!  Anna Gasser barely beat her for the Gold and got the points for Russian Ministry of Sport

Short Track had a huge day -
Women's 1000m - Enormous upsets as the South Korean favorites - Choi Min-jeong and Shim Suk-hee (the world record holder) end up in 4th and penalized respectively to not earn any medals.  Simply out strategized in the last few laps by unexpected Netherlands skater Suzanne Schulting.  Kim Boutin grabbed the silver for Team Mark.  Arianna Fontana (unselected) earned her third medal of the games.

Men's 500m was a bit more chalk with Wu Dajing bringing success to Soohorang success, and a pair of Koreans getting silver and bronze.  Suk-hee year took the silver with Hwang Dae-heon.

The Men's 5000m relay was craaazy - South Korea getting knocked out again and Hungary grabbed the first ever winter gold medal for the country.  The Liu brothers, led by Shaolin Sandor Liu of Russian Ministry of Sport deftly weaved through the last exchange to eat up the gold medal.  Wu Dajing secured his second medal of the night on the team from China, and Canada won the bronze, good for the Luge power couple who had Sam Girard and Charles Hamelin.

We're getting to that point where there's not much left to earn - still some important events to come - 4 man bobsled, Curling, and Hockey all have big point medals out there.

Day 12: Triple Digits

Lots of teams have eclipsed the century mark with big team events occurring today:

The first hockey medal was handed out after the Bronze medal game in the women's tournament - Russian Ministry of Sport was quite conflicted as their team from Finland battled her comrades  - the OAR team chosen by Team Mark.  However, in true Russian fashion only winners are accepted - Finland takes the bronze.

Alpine Skiing - the much advertised battled between Sofia Goggia of Red White and Luge and Lindsey Vonn of Team Mark was close, but Goggia couldn't be caught.  Gold for Goggia, Bronze for Vonn.

Bobsled - The women's event had some truly unexpected results, as Germany took the gold, but not the team anyone expected to perform well - there was a Jamaican bobsled team but JAMANKA the driver cruised to Gold.  No one selected Jamanka, but silver went to USA driver Taylor of Soohorang Success and Bronze to Canada driver Humphries of Seoul Searching for Gold

Cross-Country Skiing - the men's and women's freestyle relays occurred today -

• In the women's race, there was an incredible finish with US, Sweden, and Norway all ski to ski through the final lap.  In the end, a dramatic push by Jessie Diggins dug out the GOLD for the US - the first ever cross country gold that the US has ever won.  Luge Yourself gambled with the selection and proudly waves the red, white, and blue today.  Sweden took the silver with Stina Nilsson also of Luge Yourself, and Charlotte Kalla of Run DMZ.  Bronze to Norway with Marit Bjorgen of Lindsey Vonn-miting and Maiken Kaspernan Falla of Soohorang Success.
• In the men's race, Norway dominated for Gold with Johannes Klaebo of Russian Ministry of Sport grabbing his third gold, and Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Lindsey Vonn-miting grabbing his second. OAR won silver (no selections) and France took bronze with Maurice Manificat of Team Mark

Long Track Speed Skating - Men's and Women's Team Pursuit races:

• Women's - Miho Takagi of Japan and Red White and Luge led her team to gold over the powerful Dutch Team which led to silver for Marit Leenstra (Seoul Searching), Antoinette de Jong (Luge Yourself), and Ireen Wust (Lindsey Vonn-miting).  Bronze to the US! (No selections)
• Men's - Norway took the gold, however the team curiously didn't feature gold medalist of Team Mark, Havard Lorentzen, so no points for Norway..  Suk-hee year picks up a silver with Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea.  Netherlands, of course, gets a medal, but it's Bronze - Koen Verweij of Lindsey Vonn-miting and Sven Kramer of Luge Yourself grab the 3 points.

Heading into the last 4 days, the competition is heating up on the ice!

Day 11: Turn it up to 11

Lots of action today! Things are getting tight in the race for Fantasy Gold as Run DMZ sprints to an extended lead, but places 2-6 are separated by only 6 points.  One gold medal could flip the standings!

Biathlon - the mixed team event led to lots of points handed out!  France brought home the third gold for Seoul Searching and Martin Fourcade.  Norway took silver with Johannes Thingnes Bo (Soohorang Success) and Emil Hegle Svendsen (Run DMZ) leading the way. Suk-hee year grabbed a bronze with Dorothea Wierer of Italy.

Figure Skating - Incheon Closer embraced the twizzles and celebrated the gold with Virtue/Moir of Canada throwing down a personal best crazy score.  Red White and Luge scored the Bronze with the family affair Shibutani sibling US pair.

Freestyle Skiing - Team Mark was looking sharp with Cassie Sharpe getting the ski halfpipe Gold

Nordic Combined - A German SWEEP on the podium - they essentially made a wall in the home stretch of the cross country portion and fought each other for the medals.  Johannes Rydzek of Luge Yourself was the favorite and pulled away for the Gold.  Eric Frenzel led for most of the race, but settled for Bronze, much to the chagrin of Red White and Luge.

Short Track - The relays in this sport are just insane and the Women's 3000m did not disappoint.  South Korea survived a crazy exchange that wiped out Canada and Italy to get in a final race with China on the final two laps.  South Korea and mah gurl Choi min-jeong skated for the Gold.  Suk-hee year finally scored a namesake Gold with Shim Suk-hee being on the relay team.  China came in second and Canada third, but BOTH were assessed penalties and were eliminated.  Italy, which came in 4th then moved up to the Silver medal.  The Netherlands were not even in the race, but they won the consolation round and somehow come out of it with the Bronze.  Crazy! 
No one had skaters on either of these teams, but a couple omissions - Arianna Fontana of Italy has a Gold and a Silver and wasn't picked, and Jorien Ter Mors of the Netherlands now has a Long Track gold and a Short Track Bronze - wasn't picked! 
Seoul Searching and Team Mark both had Canadian silver or bronze medals wiped out with the penalty.

Day 10: Short Day but Big Points!

Only 3 medal events today but big points tabulating for our teams:

Bobsled was the big ticket event - kicking off with the 2-man event these are TEAM multiplier events so everyone is counting on their pick to come through.
In the end this was probably the most exciting event of the day as there was a TIE for the Gold medal!  After 3 runs down the track, the time compounds to decide the podium and the German team driven by Friedrich and the Canadian team driven by Kripps finshed with the same exact time.  They celebrated hugging each other running all over the track.  Russian Ministry of Sport and Run DMZ can take a victory lap together as they both get the 20 points for the team Gold.
Unfortunately the other contender - Suk-hee Year's German team driven by Lochner finished off the podium.

Ski jumping featured the big team event with many of our teams hoping for big results.  Seoul Searching and I were both cheering hard for the Norwegians, and it payed off as the marvelous mustached Robert Johanssen led the team to Gold.  Johanssen is the big surprise of the games as he was not projected for anything but clearly has been one of the best with multiple medals in the Games. Johan Andre Forfang of Seoul Searching and Daniel-Andre Tande of Incheon Closer get the 10 points for gold.  Soohorang Success and Team Mark were equally cheering for Germany together but had to settle for silver with Andreas Wellinger and Richard Freitag.  Poland scored bronze with Kamil Stoch carrying the team - Luge Yourself will take the points.

Long Track featured the men's crazy fast 500m race - Team Mark made a smart pick by going with Havard Lorentzen who blazed to Gold.

Day 9: Entering the Final Week...time to Run

Day 9 in the books and Run DMZ makes a move...

Alpine Skiing - Gold to Marcel Hirscher of Team Mark, Silver to Henrik Kristofferson of Suk-hee year, and Bronze to Alexis Pintarault of Red White and Luge

Biathlon - Martin Fourcade of Seoul Searching for Gold lost the 15km mass start by 3 cm in Sochi, but this time he held on for Gold and won by about 9 cm - crazy that after 15km it can come down to a photo finish!  Run DMZ gets on the board in biathlon with a bronze for Emil Hegle Svendsen

Freestyle Skiing - Run DMZ had a huge day with a slopestyle Gold from a pearl of a run by Oystein Braaten of Norway

Long Track Speed Skating - Once again Run DMZ ran down the gold with Nao Kodaira securing Gold in the 500m race

Cross-Country Skiing - the men's relay event concluded and a lot of our teams were counting on big results in this one.  Norway took the gold (Lindey Vonn-miting - Sundby and Russian Ministry of Sport - Klaebo), OAR took Silver (NONE) and France took Bronze (Team Mark - Manificat).  Incheon Closer is weeping silently by not having his Norwegian Finn Krogh picked to be on the team.

Day 8: The Olympics - Anything Can Happen!

What a crazy day at the Olympics - we have to open with the most improbable circumstance - Esther Ledecka from the Czech Republic is a champion snowboarder, and she decides to try Alpine skiing.  After a couple of races and being relegated to garbage time, she throws down a mega run on the Super-G she takes GOLD.  They had already taken the winners photos and completed all the interviews.  Crazy.
The impact on the Fantasy Games is HUGE - before Ledecka dominated, Russian Ministry of Sport has the Gold with Anna Veith, and Seoul Searching had the silver and bronze medalists in Tina Weirather and Laura Gut...but instead Lindsey Vonn-miting everywhere managed to get over Vonn's actual loss in the event and sneaks in a bonus gold - his team has Ledecka chosen as a snowboarder, so he gets the bonus points.  Anything can happen! (And nice draft choice by Suk-hee year).

Onto the standings:

Other big moments of the day:

• Biathlon - Russian Ministry of Sport celebrated Anastasiya Kuzmina's 3rd medal of the games and first gold, Luge Yourself grabs the silver with Darya Domracheva
• Cross-Country Skiing - The women's 5k relay handed out plenty of team medals - Norway GOLD for Seoul Searching and Lindsey Vonn-miting; SILVER for Run DMZ and Luge Yourself; BRONZE for nobody (no one picked a Russian doper)
• Figure Skating - Yuzuru Hanyu emerged from the 100 acre wood and dominated the event as expected.  Seoul Searching was as excited as Eeyore finding a stick and grabbed the Gold.  Lindsey Vonn-miting has not had much disappointment, but Nathan Chen couldn't overcome his disastrous short program, despite having the best long program score - 4th place.
• Short Track had a pair of exciting finals with Kreuger from the USA grabbing an unexpected silver in the 1000m! Luge Yourself stole a Gold with Sam Girard of Canada as favorites from almost everyone else either didn't make the final or were DQ'd.  The women's 1500m race proved exciting as well, but Choi Min-Jeong from Incehon Closer fulfilled her destiny in front of the president of South Korea in her home country and grabbed Gold.  Kim Boutin scored another bronze for Team Mark.  Unfortunately, Suk-hee year's Shim Suk-hee had a sucky day getting DQ'd in an earlier heat.
• Skeleton - a number of upsets landed Soohorang Success as the only female event medalist with Jacqueline Lolling getting the silver
• Ski Jumping - Big win for Kamil Stoch to win the only medal for Poland and defend Goldd from Sochi.  Luge Yourself celebrates! Soohorang Success has the only medalist from both hill events so far with Andreas Wellinger getting the silver.

And finally, the important question of the day - if 9 out of 10 US Olympic athletes grew up drinking milk, what the heck did that 1 other one drink?  Did they have a childhood without milk?  Did they only drink Dr. Pepper?

Day 7 - Upset City

On Day 7 there were 7 events with medals awarded - that's 21 medals to claim.  Our teams only scored FOUR of those 21 medals.

Alpine Skiing:

• Ladies Slalom - NADA - Mikaela Shiffrin disappointment for Run DMZ
• Men's Super-G - the best of any event with Beat Feuz taking the silver for Luge Yourself and Kjetil Jansrud getting the Bronze for Team Mark

Cross-Country Skiing:

• Dario Cologna gets Soohorang Success' SEVENTH Gold.  Sitting with a commanding lead right now.

Skeleton:

• Suk-hee year grabs the only Men's skeleton medal given out to our teams with the hometown hero Sungbin Yun dominating for Gold

Freestyle Skiing: NOPE

Snowboard: UGH poor Jacobellis

Long Track: ZILCH

Hopefully we all have a better day tomorrow! 

Day 6: Much Success

A very busy day in Pyeongchang has the standings shaking up a bit:

Soohorang Success leaps toward the top with THREE gold medals on Day 6.  Johannes Thingnes Bo finally finds Success and captures a Biathlon gold.  She also captured gold with the ageless wonders from Germany (but really Ukraine and France) Shevchenko/Massot in the pairs figure skating event (Russian Ministry of sport got the bronze with Duhamel/Radford of Canada), and another gold from Natalie Geisenberger in the team Luge event. What a day!

The day could have been better as she initially selected "Eggs Benedict" from Germany in the Luge as well, but with their loss in the doubles luge event, Wendl/Arlt of Seoul Searching was the chosen team to participate in the team Luge event.  This was a golden occasion for Seoul Searching as Germany did take the Gold. Canada took the Silver, giving points to Alex Gough of Run DMZ, and Austria took the Bronze securing points for Penz/Fischler of Incheon Closer.

With Luge now concluded we can see the net impact of the picks -
Seoul Searching is the big winner with Wendl/Arlt earning 15 points more than expected!
Team Mark is the biggest loser with Felix Loch earning no medals and resulting in 20 points less than the expected total. 

Other action:

• Alpine skiing  - Mikaela Shiffrin got her gold in the downhill for Run DMZ, and for the men's downhill Kjetil Janrud of the "Attacking Vikings" grabbed the silver for Team Mark, and Beat Feuz the bronze for Luge Yourself
• Biathlon - Anastasya Kuzmina scores her second silver for Russian Ministry of Sport, and Laura Dahlmeier continues her excellent games with a bronze for Red White and Luge
• Cross-Country Skiing - Charlotte Kalla took the silver for Run DMZ and Marit Bjorgen TIED for bronze (how does that happen?), and Lindsey Vonn-miting is glad for the bronze.
• Men's Snowboardcross - no one won anything
• Long Track Speed Skating - TED BLOEMAN delivers again and grabs the gold in the 10000m.  Incheon Closer is celebrating his wild card pick. Sven Kramer struggles and finishes off the podium for Lindsey Vonn-miting. Bloeman is the first non-Dutch athlete to win Gold in Long track, even though he was born in the Netherlands.

We're getting closer to the midpoint of these games - Here's hoping that Suk-hee year stops having a Suk-hee year at the Fantasy Olympics!

Day 5: Short Day Setting Up for Much to Come

Only 3 additional medal events today giving everyone a nice day to enjoy with their Valentine's:

If you're worried about your standings, there are SO many points still out there to claim.  Remember, our projected standings had the leaders just over 200 points, so plenty of chances to work your way up to the podium.

Highlights:

• Nordic Combined is an interesting event to watch because we're finding out that EVERYONE selected contenders.  The event has been conducted in every winter olympics and it clearly is unpredictable.  Watching the ski jump portion the wind essentially died halfway through right before the overwhelming favorites were about to jump.  Johannes Rydzek of Luge Yourself, Jan Schmid, of Incheon Closer, and Jorgen Graabak of Seoul Searching were projected to be the medalists, and all had absolutely terrible jumps that left the athletes and the announcers bewildered.  The second part of the event allows for participants to start the cross-country race in order of finish in the ski jump, and the favorites had too much of a deficit to make up.  Rydzek made up almost a minute of time to finish 5th, but the eventual winners held him off: Eric Frenzel of Red White and Luge took Gold, Akito Watabe of Russian Ministry of Sport claimed the silver, and Lukas Klapfer of Lindsey Vonn-miting was not projected to do anything and took the bronze.
  
• Long track featured the Women's 1000m race where another Dutch athlete took gold! Unfortunately not one anyone picked as Jorien Ter Mors surprises the favorite Marit Leenstra from Seoul Searching, who did not make the podium.  Run DMZ and Red White and Luge cleaned up with Nao Kodaira and Miho Takagi from Japan getting the Silver and Bronze respectively.
  
• The Doubles Luge competition rounds out the medals for the day - the expected medalists did get on the podium, but not where expected! Eggert/Benecken from Soohorang Success is known as "Eggs Benedict," but they maybe ate a little too much breakfast as they could not live up to expectations and slid in for the bronze.  Wendl/Arlt defended their gold medal from Sochi by scoring the gold for Seoul Searching, and Penz/Fischler of Incheon Closer overcame the memory of crashing in Sochi with high expectations to come in second and claim the silver.

Day 4: A Day of Dominance

Today was about some of the favorites delivering the goods - taking the titles - making statements.

First, the scoreboard to see which team is making a statement that they want the title:

For one such story of dominance we turn to Cross-Country skiing and the Men's Sprint Finals.  Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway is the favorite...he knows it...his competitors know it...it's -9C outside (15F) and he strides up to the blocks and rips off his hat and throws it down.  Superman isn't cold.  He spits on hats.  Take that, competitors wearing your toboggans...hope you enjoy your warm ears while the Klaebo eats some snow.
The field hangs with Klaebo until they reach the final hill, which the competitors have taken to calling "Mount Klaebo."  Klaebo strides over the hill like Edmund Hillary and leaves the remaining field in the dust.  Gold was destined and it was achieved - Russian Ministry of Sport expected nothing less.  Suk-hee year settled for the silver from the "best of the rest" Federico Pellegrino.

The women's sprint was also filled with dominance, though highly contested.  Stina Nilsson of Luge Yourself held on for the Gold while Soohorang Success' Maiken Caspernan Falla finished just short for the silver.  Team USA member Jessie Diggins, on team Luge Yourself, fought valiantly but came up short looking for Team USA's first ever medal in Cross-Country Skiing.  In the semi-final she gave everything she had to literally finish second by the toe of her boot and secure a final spot.  It was as good a finish as you will see, but it was clear all her energy was used up in the final.

Alpine Skiing finally got an event in, despite the dicey weather, and the Super Combined concluded with the expected #1 skiier Marcel Hirscher delivering the Gold for Team Mark.  Hirscher sliced and diced the slalom course barely moving a flake of snow.  A hero in Austria, and a hero in the Fantasy Olympics.  Red White and Luge was not too disappointed with Alexis Pintaurault holding serve and getting the silver behind Hirscher.

The women's luge final didn't experience the complete surprises of the men's event - Luge Yourself clearly lived up to his name with Dajana Eitberger of Germany getting the silver, but Soohorang Success was celebrating her success as Natalie Geisenberger of Germany claimed the Gold.
The one toss up was between Suk-hee year's Summer Britcher of the US and Run DMZ's Alex Gough for bronze and Run DMZ claimed the bronze points.

Other stories of dominance:

• Chloe Kim was head and shoulders above everyone else in the halfpipe having won the gold before her final run.  Team Mark was pleased.
• Stealing from the next day but what an awesome display to watch live - Sean White has one run to win gold and he makes it happen - what a competition and what a performance.  Dudes were out there falling all over the place trying to do insane tricks to try and compete.  Scotty James was the choice by Seoul Searching for Gold, but the Australian couldn't land the last run and ended with Bronze.
• The first Curling competition concluded with the mixed doubles pair from Canada claiming the Gold as expected - Lindsey Vonn-miting celebrates the 20 points.  Suk-hee year had the Swiss mixed team that secured silver.

Not all was chalk, as there were a few huge misses:

• In Short Track, the #2 overall pick Choi Min-jeong of Incheon Closer was in the final and was edged out narrowly by Arianna Fontana of Italy for the Gold.  In review judges determined Choi interfered and was disqualified, sending her off the medal stand completely.  The only point getter as a result was Team Mark, whose Kim Boutin of Canada snuck onto the podium for Bronze by moving up as a result of the DQ.  Incheon Closer was not happy and may have been yelling at the judges.
• In Long Track the Dutch took Gold and Silver (surprise, surprise) and another mad celebration at the Holland House is happening, but the favorite didn't come through - Lindsey Vonn-miting's Koen Verweij calls himself THE VIKING and looks like Thor, but lightning didn't strike today.  His competitor in the pair fell down and with no one to race against he couldn't keep on track and finished 8th.  Kjeld Nuis of Russian Ministry of Sport dominated the race and claimed the Gold instead.

I GOT SOUL BUT I'M NOT A SOLDIER

Day 3: Everyone is on the board!

Day 3 is in the books and the team figure skating final helped almost everyone to get some points on the board.  Here's the look at the scoreboard for day 3:


Team Canada was as smooth as maple syrup on the ice and secured the team figure skating gold.  Their twizzles were twinkling, their salchows were sassy, and their lutzes (sp?) loomed large.  Celebrating the Canucks Craft were Incheon Closer to the Title, Run DMZ, Russian Ministry of Sport, and Team Mark.  Suk-hee year and Luge Yourself secured a silver with the supposed non-doping Olympic Athletes from Russia, and true patriots Red White and Luge and Lindsey Vonn-miting got the bronze with team USA.
On the outside looking in without success were Soohorang Success and Seoul Searching for Gold - there's still time to find that gold success.


Significant happenings in Biathlon with Johannes Thingnes Bo once again coming up far short of the podium in the pursuit race.  The #1 expected dominant pick has struggled in Pyeongchang and is proving to be a potential bust as a #1 pick.  Once projected for 45 points, he's already down to only 25 possible points remaining - not out of reach but not good prospects with the performances so far.  In Biathlon the events build on each other and this is not good momentum.  Soohorang Success is sweating the shots.
Martin Fourcade of Seoul Searching was able to overcome a poor showing yesterday and catch the leader Arnd Peiffer of Incheon Closer to grab the Gold medal comfortably.  He shot so well and skiied so deftly that he had time to pick up a French flag from the crowd and fist pump to victory.  Pump your fist, Seoul Searching because you found Gold.
In the women's pursuit Laura Dahlmeier of Red White and Luge has lived up to the hype by skiing through pain and poor form to hold off the field and claim her second gold.  Anastasiya Kuzmina from Russian Ministry of Sport fought hard but couldn't catch Dahlmeier to claim the silver.

Elsewhere in the Games:

• Long Track saw more Dutch Dominance and another medal for Ireen Wust - this time GOLD for Lindsey Vonn-miting. Disappointing showing for Team USA with a chance for Heather Bergsma, the World Record Holder, getting out too fast in the final pairing knowing what she needed to do to win. Red White and Luge stole a Silver from the Dutch with Miho Takagi of Japan sliding into second.
• Jamie Anderson from Team USA defended her gold medal in Snowboarding inn Slopestyle - outdoing projections and making Incheon Closer proud of the value pick
• Lindsey Vonn-miting puked and rallied for a strong day with Mikael Kingsbury bouncing to gold in moguls - straight to the top of the leaderboard
• Women's Ski Jumping finished up for only the second time ever in the Olympics - Maren Lundby took the Gold for Run DMZ and Lindsey Vonn-miting celebrated again with Katharina "Brick" Althaus getting the silver.

Day 4 is in action and is shaping up to be a big one on the scoreboard with the first Alpine Skiing and Curling medals in play. 

Day 2: Feb 11 - What a Bunch of Lugers

Day 2 is in the books and some dramatic developments have had a high impact on so many teams!

So many excellent dramatic finishes, but none altered the outcome of this competition more than the men's luge finals - a complete sweep on the medal stand of unexpected winners.  Felix Loch, the two-time defending gold medalist was the last slider to hit the ice, sitting in first and essentially needs to coast to victory.  He hits a wall, loses speed and finishes FIFTH.  OFF the stand. Team Mark is certainly regretting selecting the German, especially when ignoring Team USA Chris Mazdzer who slid in for an unthinkable silver medal. 

The other giant upset was the #1 pick, expected dominant biathlete, Johannes Thingnes Bo, did not medal in the 10km sprint.  Soohorang Success is sweating the selection as she finds that Bo doesn't know Biathlon as much as expected.  Celebrating overcoming the odds was Incheon Closer to the Title, as late selection Arnd Peiffer of Germany claimed the gold in the event.  Martin Fourcade, whom the commentators spoke of as "the best shooter on the planet, maybe ever" proceeded to immediately miss 3/5 shots and finished off the podium. 

Other highlights include:

• The Dutch powerhouse, Sven Kramer, skating to gold in Long track for Luge Yourself, with Incheon's wild card selection of Ted-Jan Bloeman grabbing the silver.
• Red Gerard of the USA landing some massive tricks on the last run in slopestyle to go from 10th to GOLD for Soohorang Success.
• Martin Johnsrud Sundby skiing across the country to silver for Lindsey Vonn-miting
• Justine Dufour-Lapointe securing a silver in moguls for Incheon Closer

Expect more shake-ups in the standings as so many events are still to come.  Russian Ministry of Sport, Suk-Hee Year, and Team Mark are all hoping to get on the board and rally.

Twizzle forth to Day 3!

Day 1: Feb 10

The first day of competition is in the books and we have our first medals given:

Run DMZ is out to a running start - Charlotte Kalla sprinted to gold in the opening Cross Country edging out Lindsey Vonn-miting's Marit Bjorgen who claimed silver. 

Long Track provided a start to Orange Crush with the Netherlands claiming gold, silver, and bronze in the 3000m, but it wasn't Irene Wust (Lindsey Vonn-miting) or Antoinette de Jong (Luge Yourself) claiming the title as expected, but another unknown Dutch skater, Carlijn Achtereekte zooming to gold. 

Soohorang Success jumped to Gold with Andreas Wellinger on the Normal Hill Ski Jump, with Seoul Searching for Gold landing on the podium with Johann Andre Forfang getting the silver.

Red White and Luge shot into second place on the scoreboard behind an expected strong performance by Laura Dahlmeier from Germany skiing to Gold in the biathlon.

There are some other results I'll factor into the scoreboard after tonight!

Onto day 2!

Draft Results and Draft Grades

The Games have begun!

After a marathon draft, we are underway in PyeongChang.  Our athletes are already competing and scoring valuable medals, which means valuable points for our teams.

The full draft results with all team picks are posted in the spreadsheet, but here are the results if you take the projected point totals for all the teams:

Luge Yourself touted his formulaic approach to drafting leading up to draft day, and from these results, it seems to bode well for the potential outcome.  Led by speed skating powerhouse Sven Kramer, Netherlands, and top Nordic Combined prospect Johannes Rydzek, Germany, Luge Yourself is ready to see the wins roll in.

Overall there's only a projected spread from first to tenth of 30 points - three individual gold medals separate all these teams.  As unpredictable as the Games can be, the final Fantasy Olympics podium is far from set.

Best of luck to all, but mostly to my team.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Welcome to the 2018 Fantasy Olympiad

We are less than a week away from the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.  Curling qualifying competitions start this Wednesday!

We're in full prep mode for the draft and excited for the sporting events to come.  We'll have the pre-draft rankings out to you all soon, but to kick things off here are the rules for 2018 and the sports we'll be choosing from:

2018 Winter Fantasy Olympics Rules

1. Each team will have 17 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 18 rounds.

3. Each player will select a total of 17 athletes that will fill the following roster spots on your team: One athlete or team per sport (15) 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 10-Feb-2018 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 2018 Summer Games.  Points will be assigned as follows: INDIVIDUAL EVENTS: 10 points for a gold medal, 5 points for a silver medal, and 3 point for a bronze medal. TEAM EVENTS: 20 points for a gold medal, 10 points for a silver medal, and 6 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 speed skater), 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, hockey), 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, instagram, 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. Sports Category Medal Events  Alpine Skiing Individual 11  Biathlon Individual 11  Bobsleigh Team 3  Cross-Country Skiing Individual 12  Curling Team 3  Figure Skating Individual 5  Freestyle Skiing Individual 10  Ice Hockey Team 2  Luge Individual 4  Nordic Combined Individual 3  Short Track Speed Skating Individual 8  Skeleton Individual 2  Ski Jumping Individual 4  Snowboarding Individual 10 Long Track Speed Skating Individual 14 Wildcard     Wildcard     Medal Count TIEBREAKER