Predicate Pigskin III
Are you ready for some fantasy football?
This season features a new fantasy provider, four new teams, and a few scoring tweaks that your irritatingly perfectionist Commish believes will make this the best season ever.
(Also debuting this year is #pigskin, a separate IRC channel of our own on Freenode, so it will be possible to set foot in #predicate on Sundays and have a conversation about something else. :)
The Commish would like to welcome the following new teams to our august ranks:
Ghost Of Roger Staubach, managed by squorch. Squorch took last year off due to his military responsibilities, which made his internet access a tad unreliable during football season. But he's back with a vengeance this year, and ready to battle his way to the top of the Caption This division.
Great Lakes Steamers, managed by Josh Peterson. The erstwhile brother of our own letsgomiah, Josh is an experienced fantasy footballer who has agreed to step in and cover for a departing member of the Pigskin family this season. Thanks, bro!
Grim and Frostbitten, managed by Brandon Brown. Brandon is a fantasy veteran who has played with some of us before -- he managed a team in the 2005-06 incarnation of our league, back when it was still called Plastic Fantasy Football. Friend of squorch's, fan of heavy metal, and all-around good guy. Welcome back!
Fargo Arborists, co-managed by resplendentoops and eaton. As rookie fantasy managers, eaton and roops developed a special numerological algorithm to rank their draft picks, and have threatened to share their insights and reactions on a weekly podcast. If that pans out, details will be provided here.
Taking the 2008-09 season off are byrne, hunter, Osomatic, and SHT. Thanks for your participation, and we'll check back with you next season if we need help filling out the league again.
Predicate Pigskin IV Championship
Posted by Ajax 29 weeks ago
Despite valiant efforts from the Bengals' D/ST and WR Steve Smith of the Giants, The Defenestrators were let down in the clutch by their RB corps and Detroit QB Drew Stafford, who was just about the only Lion left with a pulse on that squad. Logging fewer than half the number of points scored in each of their previous post-season contests, Miah's team winds up with their second second-place finish, closing a dramatic rally that began in mid-season.
Predicate Pigskin IV Playoffs
Posted by Ajax 31 weeks ago
Two weeks of playoffs have cleared away the chaff, and now we're left with just two contenders for the 2009 Predicup -- neither of whom have finished better than .500, let alone won a playoff game, in the past four seasons. It's a new day in Pigskin!
Predicate Pigskin IV: Week 13
Posted by Ajax 32 weeks ago
That wraps it up for the regular season. The Chicago Rhyparographers were the lucky contenders to snatch our eighth and final playoff spot, as both of their primary rivals lost last week. Once again the general rule of "finish with a winning record and you'll make the playoffs" holds true, as every team over .500 is going, and every team under .500 isn't.
Predicate Pigskin IV: Week 11
Posted by Ajax 35 weeks ago
We clinched our first division this week. Unsurprisingly, it was Irish and The Hooligans, who have completely owned Your Mom this season. With a 6-0 divisional record, they are guaranteed the title even if they drop their last two games. Congratulations, and go n'éirí an t-ádh leat.
Predicate Pigskin IV: Week 9
Posted by Ajax 36 weeks ago
Irish's reign of terror finally comes to an end with a surprise performance from the Basrah Camel Spiders, who have been lurking in the basement of the league all season. They always strike when you least expect them!
Week 16 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Christmas came early for the Edgewater Fustigators this year, as they hung on to defeat the Great Lakes Steamers in a high-powered shootout that definitely beat out last year's Pigskin Championship for excitement. Much applause is due to wurd for closing the deal in his third year managing a team, all three of which have featured a playoff appearance.
Week 15 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Five years isn't much of a history, but it's enough to establish some historical trends. And in the history of Plastic Fantasy Football and Predicate Pigskin, no champion has ever repeated, and only once has the #1 playoff seed captured the championship trophy -- Los Osos, way back in 2006.
Did history repeat itself? In a word, yes. Let's go to the tape.
Week 14 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
With four Your Mom teams in the playoffs, and none of them playing each other, there was a serious possibility that the league's toughest division would either sweep the post-season, or be swept out. Instead, only one of those four teams advanced, thereby ensuring that all four divisions will be represented in the second round.
Let's go to the tape!
Week 13 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
The post-season is finally here! Congratulations to The Hooligans and The Pantywaists, who snagged our last two remaining playoff spots; all three of their rivals failed to win their win-or-go-home games, and therefore went home.
This means that the Your Mom division produced fully half of our post-season contenders, and through a quirk in the seeding it turns out that none of them will play each other in the first round. We could be looking at an all-Your Mom semi-final round next week!
Our couplets come to an end after this week, in favor of more prosaic post-season recaps. So let's get 'er done!
Week 12 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Three more teams managed to secure a playoff slot in Week 12, leaving only two spots unclaimed as we head into the final week of the season. Both of the top two Caption This teams secured a ninth victory, so they are both headed to the playoffs and remain neck and neck in the divisional battle -- although the Chicago Rhyparographers do have a decided advantage in that contest, thanks to their 7-1 divisional record. The Pacific Coast Pirates also clinched the Your Mom division thanks to a well-timed 6-game win streak.
Five teams are still contending for those two playoff spots: Grim And Frostbitten, The Hooligans and The Pantywaists have the inside track, as they all control their own destiny and can advance by winning their next game (or through a tie or loss, combined with ties or losses by their rivals). The Beefalo Balls need both a win and a loss by Grim And Frostbitten to advance, and The Wrong Petersons' task is all but insurmountable, but they are still mathematically alive with a win and a lot of help.
Just a couple more weeks of couplets to compose...
Week 11 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
It took us eleven weeks, but we finally have some teams that have absolutely, positively clinched playoff berths -- and two of four divisions have been clinched as well. Congratulations to the Oak Ridge Trinities on claiming the coveted Stabby Action Banner, as well as The Headbangers for the corresponding award in Fried Soup. The trophies will be awarded at the conclusion of the regular season, just two weeks away!
Congratulations are also in order for the Chicago Rhyparographers, who could still finish second in Caption This, but have racked up a 7-1 divisional record -- best in the league -- which ensures that they cannot be eliminated from playoff contention by our first tiebreaker.
Time again for that slightly less popular internet phenomenon: No Girls, Eleven Couplets.
Week 10 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Just one week after our last undefeated team lost a game, the Baystate Wicked Cheatahs follow suit by grabbing their first win of the season, finishing off a 9-game losing streak. And this wasn't a lucky strike against an absentee manager, either -- the Chicago Rhyparographers were the victims, and lost their 1-game advantage over the second-place team in Caption This as a result.
This puts them in rather precarious company where the playoffs are concerned. As it stands, there are six teams with the same 7-3 record. When you add the 9-1 Headbangers to the list, that leaves only one playoff spot (theoretically) available to somebody who doesn't yet have their seventh win. Which in turn means that a bad streak in our three remaining regular season games could still wash one or more of those teams out of playoff contention!
Cometh the couplets...
Week 9 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Our long national nightmare is finally over! The Headbangers lost their game this week, ending a remarkable 17-game win streak stretching back to Week 8 of the 2007 season. However, their quest for the Silver Streak trophy still received a major boost, as their closest rival in that contest also lost in Week 9. This takes the league's longest currently active win streak down to 4 games -- so the Great Lakes Steamers will have to win out through the end of the regular season and win a playoff game to pull ahead. A tall order!
In playoff hunt news, all four 2-6 teams from last week took a seventh loss in Week 9, thereby eliminating them from contention in all likelihood. Condolences are hereby extended to The Iron Yuppies, Army of Darkness, Los Tastiks and the Arcane Nitehawkez, who battled bravely but simply couldn't get a good bounce this season. Better luck next year!
Couplets, eh? I gotcha couplets right here!
Week 8 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
So much for that! After enjoying one brief week among the cadre, the Beefalo Balls were summarily banished back to the ranks by those unruly Hooligans, thus restoring Pigskin's status quo ante.
It was quite a loss for poor Cy Guy -- moving to 4-3-1 dropped him from 4th place all the way down to 10th, since competition in the cut-throat Your Mom division remains fierce. Indeed, even The Pantywaists are momentarily out of playoff contention despite their 5-3 record, thanks to a deficit in total scoring of only 5.8 points.
Special Saturday edition of couplets starts...right now!
Week 7 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
No team with a losing record has ever made the playoffs in the history of Pigskin, and the luckless Baystate Wicked Cheatahs guaranteed a losing season by dropping their seventh straight game. But on the bright side (if you can call it that) they have also made themselves prohibitive favorites to collect our Streak of Piss award. Since the Army of Darkness finally managed to collect win #2 this week, the second-longest losing streak in the league is now only two games, which would require one of those teams to fall off a cliff and the Cheatahs to win their next contest for them not to take the Piss.
On the other hand, the Beefalo Balls are having their best season in history. Not only have they beaten their inaugural record of 3-10 already, but they claimed first place in the Stabby Action division with their win this week -- the first time since Week 3 that a divisional crown has changed hands. The Oak Ridge Trinities are only half a game back, though, and with the return of RB Brian Westbrook to their arsenal, team BEEF will have a fight on their hands when the two clubs clash in a couple of weeks.
It's coupletin' time!
Week 6 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
EDIT: I apologize for omitting one of the games in the first draft. This has been remedied.
It was a weekend of surprises, both in the NFL and in Pigskin. The top three teams in the mighty NFC East lost out to lowly St. Louis, Cleveland, and (slightly less lowly) Arizona, although the last-place Eagles salvaged some pride by dropping 40 points on the 49ers.
Over in Pigskin, the undefeated Chicago Rhyparographers took their first loss at the hands of a 2-3 team, while The Wrong Petersons managed to score their second tie in two games, and now own the very strange record of 1-3-2. It won't be easy to make a playoff run from a 1-3-2 start, but hey -- at least it's not 1-5.
You came for the couplets, so without further ado...
Week 5 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
Fried Soup was our most active division again this week, as the bottom three teams got into a tussle and flipped around. The Defenestrators are having the most trouble with our first tie-breaker, as all three of their losses have been against teams in their own division.
The league also logged its first tie of the season in Week 5, as The Wrong Petersons and The Show battled to a stand-still. Ties are rare in our league, with only one happening in each of the past three seasons. But last year's occurred in the playoffs, and required some improvisation by the Commish to decide who got to move on. So if we have to have one, better we get it out of the way now.
Brace for couplets!
Week 4 Recap
Posted by Ajax 1 year ago
With roughly a third of the season behind us, the divisional rankings are starting to harden. None of the top two teams in any division budged this week, although some new teams have managed to wedge their way into a potential playoff berth with those all-important divisional wins.
Still, it traditionally takes at least seven wins to guarantee a ticket to the post-season, and even our best teams still only have four. So there's plenty of time for a shake-up in the standings. But sooner would be better than later for the eight teams who are currently sitting on a losing record. :)
Couplets ahoy!
